México - Margot Lee Shetterly

Transcription

InsideOut
8
Last Hurrah:
Catherine
Dunn goes
to the Zócalo
and takes us
inside
in the center
of coyoacán
the final
days
of Camp
Peje
How many
presidents
should
a country
have?
“Uno. Just one please!”
Storm Trooper, Mexican,
promoting a Star Wars convention
Taste
Arts & Culture
Phil Kelly
Why are all
swimming
pools blue?
Terrible
student
Alejandro Heredia‘s
chance encounter
with a life‘s work.
22
The scoop on how WE got
here.
5. Invoices
Stan Gotlieb on foreign participants in Mexican politics.
7. News&Notes
X Factor
The world’s busiest border by
the numbers.
11. InsideOut
CloseUp
Joe Nash arrived in 1938 on
a bike.
[ ] InsideMéxico
11. InsideOut
Lingo for Gringos
Puzzled by a political acronym?
12. Taste
A salsa
for every meal.
Celia Marín presents a hot list
of recipes and offers a primer
on the essential Mexican
condiment.
16. Cover
Who are we?
A look at the millions of
North Americans choosing
México.
Marie, Musician, Canadian
Top chef
Artist Phil Kelly
examines life…
and life in México.
4. Inbox
From the editors
“Politics?! No!”
14
23. Arts&Culture
Insight
Driving without a doubt in
México.
29. RealEstate
CloseUp
Inside the Buen Tono building.
30. Green Guide
HSBC banks on environmental sustainability.
omar arroyo, Vendor, Sinaloa
“None. We should all be
presidents.”
A new son band on the rise.
28. Transitions
The Fixer
“One president, but the
power resides with the
people. The president works
for the people.”
24
The Guide
& The Calendar
What’s happenin’ in
Colonia Condesa and
around the city this
month?
Vladimir Diana, Student,
México City
“One president, but they
should be in for 8 years so
they have a chance to do
something.”
Memry Roessler
Teacher, American
(photos by Luz Montero)
November • 2006
Do people tell you you’re over the hill?
What if you were?
Over the hill,
over a stream and over an ocean.
To another continent.
Thousands of miles from your own.
Where elders are looked to as leaders.
Where the process of improving the lives of others
improves your own.
What if you’re over the hill?
What’s over that hill anyway?
Peace Corps.
Life is calling. How far will you go?
Call 800.424.8580 | Visit peacecorps.gov
Who we are
insidemexico@letters.com
“I
t’s Monday, November 14th, 2005, and
we’re four days away from starting a
trip that’s been a year in the making.
With our new Honda Element (aptly
named “Ant”...short for Rocinante, the
name of Don Quixote’s horse) packed
full of our stuff, our dreams, and our
ambitions, we’re getting on the road
that will take us to Oaxaca, México
where we will launch an English language, alternative newspaper, The
Mexican Sun.”
These are the words we wrote on
our blog eleven months ago, just before
setting out on the adventure of a lifetime. We believed we had spotted an
underserved group of readers: English
speakers living in and visiting México,
and we hoped to combine our editorial
and business experience to create a
periodical that would bridge the gap
between English-speaking residents
and their adopted home.
Of course, things have turned out
a little differently than we expected.
The blog hasn’t happened (not yet,
anyway). The name of the paper has
changed…well…more than once (The
Mexican Sun, The Meridian, and Heliotrope were among the pretenders). It
took us seven months to get our working papers. And we have moved the
launch from Oaxaca to México City.
Getting to this point has been the most
exhausting, intense and fulfilling year
of our lives.
Now we are ready, tilting at our
windmill. Our mission is to create a
bridge between México’s diverse cultures and the English speakers from
the United States, Canada and around
the world who are now living here.
We have built a team of exceptionally talented and hardworking Mexicans
and Americans with journalism experience in both countries. With Inside
México and insidemex.com, we plan to
create a first-rate, English language
periodical for the more than 1 million
English speakers who have made their
homes in México. Inside México aims to
reflect, celebrate, question and demystify México for the river of migrants
flowing from North to South. In short,
it will try to make México more accessible to our readers.
Perhaps just as important, however,
Inside México will also examine us,
México’s English speaking residents.
What are our interests, needs, biases
and blind spots? What practical information do we need to build a new life
in our new country? How do we fit here
in this land of cactus and salsa?
To make this work, we will need
your help. What do you love about
México? What are your pet peeves?
What do you find confusing or incomprehensible? What do we get right?
Wrong? Let us know. Send us letters.
Write us e-mails. Ultimately, we want
to help you get the most out of your life
in México.
Aran and Margot
Shetterly
N U M B E R 1 • no v ember 2 0 0 6
Aran Shetterly
E ditor - in -C hief
editor@insidemex.com
Emilio Deheza
Alejandro Xolalpa
M anaging E ditor
Creative Consultant
C omercial D irector
Catherine Dunn
Art & Photography
Contributors
Margot Lee Shetterly
M éxico C ity E ditor
Luz Montero
S taff P hotographer
Editorial Contributors
Stan Gotlieb
Rúben Hernández
Frank Kosa
Ron Mader
Celia Marin
Eugenia Montalván Colon
Jamie Rosen
[ ] InsideMéxico
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Bertha Herrera
Gail Page
Diana Ricci
Robert Shetterly
Víctor Solís
PR
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DESIGN
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de C.V., Corregio No. 14, Colonia Noche
Buena, C.P. 03720, México D.F., México
2006. Se prohíbe la reproducción, total o
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November • 2006
Is this a private fight
or can anyone get involved?
Stan Gotlieb
As you probably
know by now,
there is a great
deal of social
unrest in Oaxaca,
where I live.
As you probably know by now, there is a
great deal of social unrest in Oaxaca, where
I live. Inevitably, expatriates like me are
affected by the tension and the uncertainty.
The question, then, is how should we relate
to the situation? These are some musings
which I hope may prove useful to others:
When you are deciding what to bring
with you for your new life in México, leave
your political activism at home. If you want
to be a political activist, there’s plenty to be
done wherever you came from. Regardless
of whether you are a “radical,” a “liberal,”
or a “conservative,” you don’t have a place
in the struggles that engulf your new
country.
There are many reasons for this. The
simplest, and perhaps the most compelling,
is that it’s against the law for foreigners to
get involved in domestic political struggles.
When the Migración (Migration Secretariat) agents come for you, you will be
detained and, within 24 hours, according
to Mexican deportation practices, you will
find yourself back in your country of origin.
Other reasons are more subtle, but to
my mind, equally compelling. It’s crazy to
get involved in a situation where (and this
is true for most of us) you do not speak or
read the language beyond, as our friend
Susanna says, “enough Spanish to buy
things.” Even if your command of Spanish
is top-notch, what about your understanding of Mexican history? If you don’t know
where you have been, how can you know
where you are going?
And, even if your command of the language and the history is excellent, people
passionately involved in a struggle may lie
to you, either deliberately or by repeating
false rumors that support the cause. Ask
a journalist friend of ours who writes for a
Mexican-based website. She is supportive
of the teachers’ strike here in Oaxaca, but
admits in print that her “friends,” sources
among the strikers, manipulate her reporting by distorting or fabricating. “Truth” is
very difficult to come by.
I’m not saying it’s wrong for us foreigner
residents to have an opinion: I’m saying our
opinion doesn’t matter. We are, as long as
we hold a non-Mexican passport (yes, you
can become a “citizen” here without giving
up your citizenship there), visitors. We are
free to go at any time, leaving behind whatever mess we may have created. Unless
we renounce our foreign citizenship and
subject ourselves to all the same rules and
conditions as native Mexicans, becoming
active in Mexican politics is, to my mind,
incredibly arrogant. That’s assuming, of
course, that we understand the language
and know the history. Otherwise, it is both
arrogant and stupid.
In my opinion, “witnessing” what is
going on as a way to protect vulnerable
people from violence is a truly noble deed
that is desperately needed here in Oaxaca
and in most places, including the United
States. Helping to construct schools, clinics, and other facilities in areas with few
resources and lots of political oppression is
likewise laudable. But the people who do
that humanitarian work understand the
risks, and consciously put themselves in
the line of fire.
Vote in your own country by absentee
ballot if you can. Use your email to write
letters to the editor. Try to influence your
representatives back home for the sides
you favor both there and here, and let them
work through official channels. That’s your
right, your duty, and your privilege.
México is undergoing a series of social
convulsions that are likely to continue for
some time to come. If you are a foreigner
in México, you need to think about how you
will relate to Mexican politics and events
while you are here. Understand the risks.
Should you decide to get involved, don’t be
surprised if the Migración comes for you.
At that moment, you may believe you are a
victim, but you are also a participant.
© 2006 by Stan Gotlieb
Stan is a regular contributor to INSIDE México. His work has appeared in“Doing business in México,”
“Small Business Magazine,” MexConnect.com, and numerous other publications. He has been a resident of
México for almost 13 years, and writes from his “hometown” of Oaxaca. With his partner, the photographer
Diana Ricci, Stan publishes an insider Newsletter available on the Internet to subscribers. Samples of their
work can be seen at www.realoaxaca.com. His email is realoaxaca@gmail.com
November • 2006
Víctor Solís
Inside México Listens In
Former US President Jimmy Carter
“I…have visited more than 120 countries and
what I’ve seen recently is a dramatic decline in
America’s reputation around the globe. Nobody
is better placed to realize this than Americans…
living abroad.“
US Senator
and Presidential
Candidate,
Hilary Clinton against
“dumb walls” and
for “smart fencing”
Mexican
President Elect,
Felipe Calderon
comments on the wall
“It seems to me that it’s an
obligation and something
truly obvious and necessary to
demonstrate our rejection…of
the wall on the border.”
“A physical
structure is
obviously
important…
There is
technology
that would
be in the
fence that could spot people
coming from 250 or 300 yards
away…”
Express yourself: letters@insidemexico.com
InsideMéxico [ ]
México City
Elevation: 7,400 feet
(2,250 meters)
Latitude: 19.26 N
Longitude: 99.7 W
November Average
Rainfall: 0.6 inches
November Average Temp
Hi/Lo: 72 F./ 47 F.
Full Moon: November 5
November 2
Day of the Dead
(México):
“The Mexican is familiar
with death, jokes about it,
caresses it, sleeps with it,
celebrates it; it is one of his
toys and his most steadfast
love.” Octavio Paz, Nobel
Laureate, 1914-1998
November 7
Melbourne Cup
Day (Australia)
and mid-term elections
(United States of America):
Down under, everyone stops
work for three-and-a-half
minutes to watch one of
the world’s most important
horse races. In the US, voters
will elect 435 members of
Congress, 33 Senators, and
36 state governors.
November 11
Remembrance
Day (Canada)
and Veterans Day (United
States) mark the end of
World War I: “’Why do we
wear a poppy today?” The
lady smiled in her wistful
way/And answered, “This
[ ] InsideMéxico
is Remembrance Day /And
the poppy there is a symbol
for/The gallant men who
died in the war/ And because
they did, you and I are free/
That’s why we wear a poppy
you see.’” Don Crawford
November 20
Start of the Mexican Revolution of 1910:
When Porfirio Díaz proclaimed himself president
again after serving for 34
consecutive years, Francisco
I. Madero issued a seven
point plan from prison, calling for national insurrection.
He wrote in the San Luis
Potosí Plan, “One cannot recognize the present
government of General Díaz
… the electoral fraud [that
brought him the presidency]
is the most scandalous in
Mexican history.”
November 23
Thanksgiving Day
(United States):
Ah! on Thanksgiving day,
when from East and from
West/From North and from
South, come the pilgrim and
guest…/
The old broken links of affection restored/When the
care-wearied man seeks his
mother once more.../What
moistens the lip and what
brightens the eye?/What
calls back the past, like the
rich Pumpkin pie? John
Greenleaf Whittier, 18071892
November • 2006
Preparing for México–bound
baby boomers
At the end of September, INSIDE MÉXICO
had the opportunity to speak with one of
México’s leading public intellectuals about
the phenomenon of “baby boomers” retiring to México. Dr. Jorge Castañeda, who
served for three years as Foreign Minister of México under President Vicente Fox, believes that the largest ever
out-migration of Americans will benefit both México and
its neighbor to the north.
inside méxico: Do you think the Mex-
ican government should encourage
Americans and Canadians to choose
México as a place to retire?
jorge castañeda: It’s a very important trend for the three countries.
Americans and Canadians from the
‘baby-boomer’ generation are in different circumstances than their parents were at the same age. They have
more disposable income. They have
more open minds about where to live.
And, they are retiring with a different
sense of what retirement means. They
will continue writing, reading, playing
sports and contributing to causes that
matter to them. When they come to
México, technology, and their comfort
with it, allows them to stay connected
to their family and friends back home.
Retirement centers in the United
States are filling up. It’s very important
for Americans and Canadians to have
somewhere comfortable to go.
For México, it’s a very important opportunity. We are one of the few countries in the world positioned to take
advantage of this phenomenon, mainly
for geographic reasons. Most American
and Canadian cities are within a two to
three hour plane ride of México. México should do what it can to encourage
baby-boomers to retire here.
im: What do you see as the benefits
to México of having these people retire
here?
jc: They have high disposable incomes. They bring in hard currency.
They will demand services that will
create jobs. They are mature and they
Jorge Castañeda
understand that they are in a different
country.
im: What does México need to do to
prepare for this influx?
jc: There are several things México
needs to do. The first is that American
health insurance companies like Blue
Cross Blue Shield and about four or five
of the other big ones (including, perhaps, Medicare) should cover at least
first and second level medical services
here in México. This insurance needs
to be made available to Americans who
live here. After 65, there are many typical health-related problems that arise,
but most of them are easy to fix.
Second, there need to be airports sufficiently close to where the Americans
and Canadians are settling. This will
enable these retirees to get home, and
for their children and grandchildren to
visit them easily.
Finally, México needs to provide the
types of facilities that these people will
want: golf courses, movie theaters, satellite television, good phone services,
etc. Also, the facilities need to be in
place to offer them medical support.
There is no sense in the insurance companies reaching agreements to cover
the retirees in México if there are no
clinics and airports to service them.
im: What about the resources this
group will consume? For example,
there is not an abundance of water in
some parts of México.
jc: It depends on the area. Some
parts of México are hard pressed for
water. In other parts, it’s quite functional. Americans do consume more
’s interests include Latin American politics, comparative politics and U.S.-Latin
American relations. Dr.Castañeda’s work as Foreign Minister for three years under President Fox focused on
diverse issues in U.S.-Mexican relations including migration, trade, security, and narcotics control; joint diplomatic initiatives on the part of Latin American nations; and the promotion of Mexican economic and trade relations globally. Since 1997, Dr. Castañeda has been Global Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Latin
American Studies, New York University. He has been Member of the Board of Human RightsWatch since 2003.
November • 2006
water than Mexicans but they are also
used to paying for water. I wouldn’t
emphasize this as a problem that needs
to be addressed.
im: What about the perception of
security problems? Do you think that
this has an impact on whether or not
people choose México as a place to
retire?
jc: I hope that the new government
will address these security questions
because, first and foremost, they affect Mexicans. Some of the events you
read about are bloody and spectacular but they don’t affect Americans. I
don’t think many tourists want to go
to Nuevo Laredo.
The places most tourists go are very
safe. Take Mérida. It’s a beautiful city
with wonderful weather (although it’s a
bit hot in the summer). You’re within two
hours of the beaches of the Maya Riviera.
You are within an hour or so of ecological reserves with flamingoes and other
wildlife. You can walk down the Paseo
de Montejo at midnight and not worry
about your safety. There are no security
concerns there. There are no security
concerns in Puerto Peñasco either.
The security issues create an atmosphere that is not conducive to tourism,
but they should not be a deterrent.
im: Do you think that the flow of
Americans south and of Mexicans
north will have an impact on border
politics?
jc: There will be some issues in places where there have never been many
crossings and now there will be more.
Like Nogales, for example. Most people
who drive into México are Mexicans
coming home for the holidays and Mexican-Americans visiting family. For the
most part, Americans fly into México.
Will it impact the interior? The more
Americans that come, the more issues
will arise, just as when more Mexicans
go to the United States, more issues
arise there. Both countries are reluctant to deal with issues of immigration,
but they are going to have to.
México has been hospitable to Americans for more than half-a-century when
tourists started going to Acapulco in the
1950s. Mexicans understand the benefits of Americans visiting our country.
There will be a cultural impact, certainly, as there has been in the United
States with all the Mexicans living
there. However, I think this will be in
the best interests of both countries.
Border
Crossings
I
mmigrants crossing the US-México
border without visas
are a hot issue on both
sides of the border.
The 21 (legal) entry
and exit points along
the 1,951 mile (3,141
km) frontier are the
busiest border crossings in the world.
Here are a few statistics:
350,000,000
Approximate annual
number of people who
cross legally between the
US and México (both
directions).
4,238,045
Annual truck crossings
from México into the
US.*
7,774
Annual train crossings
from México into the
US.*
88,068,391
Annual personal vehicle
crossings from México
into US.*
48,663,773
Annual pedestrian crossings (legal) from México
into the US.*
1,000,000
Approximate number of
Mexicans who cross into
the US illegally each year.
473
Number of migrant deaths
at the border in 2005.
700
Projected length in miles
of the wall the US plans to
build along its border with
México.
$1.5-3 billion
The estimated cost of
building this wall.
Sources: International Boundary and Water Commission, the
US Bureau of Transportation
Statistics, US Customs and Border
Protection Public Affairs Office,
The Christian Science Monitor
* numbers for 2003
InsideMéxico [ ]
Insideout
A hot summer
❙ By the end of July the political thermometer reached its
boiling point with the occupation of Reforma and the Zócalo
july 2 Mexican presidential elec-
tion too close to call
july 8 amlo Zócalo Rally #1
july 10 amlo demands recount
july 16 amlo calls for civil resis-
tance at Zócalo Rally # 2
july 30 Rally #3, plantón begins
aug 5 trife denies a full recount
sept 1 President Fox blocked
from giving state of the union
PejeCountry
48 days at camp
– a look under the tent
the final hours
of the summer’s
longest election
protest
by C at h e r i n e D u n n
p h oto g r a p h y : L u z M o n t e ro
W
ednesday, sept. 13, 2 a.m.
– The white, pitch-roofed
tents huddle under a cloudswaddled moon, like a fleet of
sailboats docked for the night.
A television hums in the darkened Guanajuato
state tent, and a light burns in the clinic. Five
people sit chatting in front of Sinaloa.
Ángel Cardona carries a walky-talky in
his vest pocket. This night is brisk, but quiet.
No drunks or troublemakers on the horizon
when we return from the bathrooms in the city
government building and slip back into camp.
Ángel, tall, his curly hair capped with a sombrero, is manning a security shift until 3.
“What I’m going to miss the most is the revolutionary moment,” says the 19-year-old from
Monterrey, pausing in front of the flag pole.
“After that, living in the Zócalo with people
from the whole country.” Here, he says, you
walk three steps and you’re in another state.
An industrial chemistry student at the University of Nuevo León, Ángel hopped a prd bus
for Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s (amlo’s)
second major protest assembly in mid-July, following the July 2 presidential election. He came
with a backpack and three changes of clothes,
thinking he’d be in Mexico City for a weekend.
When López Obrador asked, “Do we stay, or do
we go?” Ángel thought, “Well, I’ll stay.”
Now, 45 days after amlo supporters first
hammered stakes into pavement, camp was
winding down. Known to everyone in Mexico
City simply as the Zócalo, the Plaza de la Constitución is one of the three largest public
[ ] InsideMéxico
squares in the world. On the night of July 30 it
became a country within a country. In protest
of López Obrador’s 240,000 vote loss to Felipe
Calderón, tents representing every state in the
republic formed the hub of a system of street
camps that coursed three of the city’s primary
arteries, Reforma, Juárez and Madero.
Many believed that their candidate, with
his platform combating poverty and inequality, had won and that they had been swindled
out of a president. López Obrador contested
the results in court, and lost. But his National
Democratic Convention would launch the next
phase of action, the nueva etapa, on Independence Day, when amlo planned to take his
argument on the road.
Camp would close to clear the way.
*
*
*
wednesday evening – Through a stop-and-
start drizzle, López Obrador commands his
stage in khakis and a brown suede jacket. Umbrellas open and close like windshield wipers.
Throughout the duration of the plantón,
López Obrador’s sermons drew crowds of people who donated to the cause. Little buckets
– botecitos – are used to collect coins from
visitors. López Obrador’s Sunday morning sessions usually netted each state about $1,500
pesos; they tallied $4,500 a week in total. “308
… 328 … 338 … 348 … 352. Did you see? $352
pesos,” announces the man counting for Nuevo
León. Groceries from a store of donated goods
feed the protesters; the money from the botecitos pays for soap, razors, toilet paper, shampoo, water and gasoline to go protest in front of
the Tribunal Electoral del Poder Judicial de la
Federación – the federal electoral court.
The Nuevo León camp squatted on a 10by-30 meter patch of paving stones. Seven
tents and 10 cots made for sleeping quarters.
About 30 people lived in the camp at any one
time. Some stayed from Day 1 through Day 48
(a number touted as a badge of honor), while
others rotated out. Ángel shared the camp
with a mayoral candidate who was contesting
his loss in court, a clothing factory supervisor,
The plantón, as amlo’s protest camp was known, stemmed from
the Zócalo and blockaded the streets Madero, Juárez and Reforma. The
November • 2006
sept 5 trife announces Calderón
will be president
sept 13 pfp forces near Zócalo,
creating tension within the camp
sept 14 mid-afternoon Fox
to give Grito in Dolores, Hidalgo
instead of Palacio Nacional.
sept 14 evening amlo will not
give Grito in Zócalo, Mexico City
Mayor Encinas will.
López Obrador’s devoted followers believed their
candidate’s plans would improve their lives.
sept 15 Plantón ends
sept 16 mexican independence
day amlo convenes National
Democratic Convention, 1 million
attendees “elect” him president
Despite the hail, rain and other discomforts
of urban camping, many protesters would miss
the “revolutionary moment” when it ended.
Ángel Cardona (right), a 19-yearold from Monterrey, lived in the Zócalo from Day 1 of the plantón. Left,
this Peje hat was a fixture around
the square. El Peje, a popular López
Obrador nickname, refers to a gar
fish found in the candidate’s home
state of Tabasco.
the prd’s Nuevo León youth coordinator and
a family with an 8-month-old baby. His tent
mate, Juan José Mena, 25, was also from Monterrey. His 16-year-old brother, Alexander,
was not interested in politics at all, but needed
a place to crash (“It’s a long story, compañera,”
Ángel said), and was bunking in their tent the
last few nights of the camp.
Around 10:45 p.m., Claudia Ojeda Quintero,
one of the camp organizers, appears at the
dining table. No sleeping, she says. Stay alert.
Gather your things. Be ready to evacuate the
camp just in case. “Está caliente la situación,”
she says. The situation is hot.
When she’s done speaking, I ask Ángel
if Claudia is nervous. “Yes,” and shakes his
hand, as if to say “more or less.” “In this country we have a history of repression.”
While members of the plantón blockaded
the street entrances to the Zócalo, the Policía
Federal Preventiva – gray-uniformed federal
police forces – have appeared unexpectedly
behind the Palacio Nacional.
Suddenly the camp feels claustrophobic.
I decide to leave.
*
*
*
thursday afternoon , sept . 14 – “You
plantón made its last stand the night before the Independence Day
Grito (top) and by the next day, the square was nearly clear (bottom).
November • 2006
shouldn’t have left,” Ángel says the next day.
It was a sunny, breezy afternoon with flags
kicking and snapping. The night before there
had been no confrontation with the pfp and
the Zócalo broke into a big party, Ángel tells
me. Bottle rockets, dancing, mariachis, a soccer game in the street. No rules, no schedule.
“Most of us slept where we fell,” he says.
Jesusa Rodríguez, a well-known performer
and the plantón’s emcee, announces that to-
morrow President Fox will give the celebratory
Independence Day Grito in Dolores, Hidalgo.
Protesters will have the Zócalo for themselves.
“Viva la resistencia civil pacífica!” she shouts.
“Hear that, compañera?” Ángel asks me.
During the afternoon, people fold tents,
bundle blankets. The white sheet walls come
down and the world peeks through. The plaza
is buzzing. A man hands out flyers promoting
amlo’s candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize. Inside the Chiapas tent-turned-party-salon, guests
at a wedding reception sip agua de tamarindo
and dance to the notes of a marimba. Earlier,
a couple from Durango were married here, and
Irma Amezquita Rodríguez renewed her vows
with her husband of 31 years. Their anniversary
passed on Aug. 31, “but because of the movement,” Irma says, “we couldn’t do anything.”
*
*
*
friday morning, sept. 15 – The huge tents
are gone. Sweepers in orange and yellow uniforms, some listening to headphones, neaten
the square.
A man wearing a Jalisco camp badge comes
up to me. He seems lost.
“Good morning, joven,” he says. “Did they
already take down the Oaxaca camp?”
I look around the vacant stretch.
“Yes, everything,” I say. He looks blank.
I see Ángel, Juan José and Alexander ambling through the plaza. Ángel, a red-whiteand-green jester hat perched on his head, says,
“I was living there.” He points to empty space.
“It’s like it’s missing something,” Ángel says.
We find shelter from the sun in the thick
shadow of the flag pole cast against the bare
stones. ❚
InsideMéxico [ ]
Rumbo a...
Tepoztlán
A valley,
a mountain,
an energy
B y M aya H a r r i s
P h oto L u z M o n t e ro
R
ound the bend of a mountain-hugging stretch of the Mexico-Cuernavaca highway, and there it is:
Tepozteco Mountain rising from
the Tepoztlán Valley. Craggy cliffs
jut from the basin like cubist monoliths. The
town of Tepoztlán is tucked, still out of sight,
down in the rambling foothills of the Popocatépetl volcano. It is believed that an undercurrent of curative powers exists in Tepoztlán and this has
drawn followers of New Age, holistic and esoteric
philosophies to this quaint, traditional pueblo. The beauty and the mysticism that surround
Tepoztlán enticed me to visit; including that
first time, I’ve made the hour-long trip from the
D.F. nine times. Locals claim that Tepoztlán is in a sacred valley where energies converge, and that these are
concentrated in the pyramid built atop Tepozteco
Mountain. The hike up is difficult, but the impressive view from the peak and the strenuous
journey itself are completely fulfilling. The journey to the Tepozteco summit begins on the main street, 5 de Mayo, which is
lined by brightly painted artisan shops, holistic centers, restaurants and Zen bookstores,
and punctuated by bursts of color from draping bougainvilleas. Pedestrians and stray dogs
weave between passing cars and beverages
[ 10 ] InsideMéxico
5 de Mayo is lined with colorful artisan shops.
stands offering cold micheladas. Aromas of incense, honey and fresh tortillas blend into a delicious combination. Hand-made itacates (blue
cornmeal pancakes with your choice of topping)
and quesadillas make a great pre-hike snack. 5 de Mayo leads to the “Camino del Tepozteco”
at the base of the mountain. As the incline rises
the people renting hammocks and selling tie-dye
fall out of sight. A path of natural and built steps
parallels a stream and is almost entirely shaded
by arching trees and towering cliffs. I’ve shared the
path with political pilgrims, ladies from Dallas on
retreat, Nike-clad chilangos, and a motley assortment of robed New Age monks. Some go slower
than others, but everyone is vying for the same
prize at the end. The pyramid
at the top of
the mountain
is dedicated
to Tepoztecatl,
god of pulque
– fermented
maguey plant –
and fertility.
November • 2006
Where to eat
El Ciruelo Restaurant Bar
Mexican cuisine. Zaragoza 17.
73-9395-1203. Top recommendation, beautiful view of
the mountains.
Restaurant Axitla
Mexican cuisine. Av. del
Tepozteco on the path to the
mountain. 73-9395-0519
What to see
El Ex-Convento de la Natividad
A U.N. World Heritage Site
with a great museum on
Tepoztlán inside
The bean-and-rice mosaic
entrance to La Parroquia de la
Natividad, adjacent to the exconvento
Remember
The market is open on
Wednesdays and Sundays.
The hike is strenuous. Wear
proper shoes and allow yourself
a couple hours to get to the top.
To learn more
http://e-municipios.e-morelos.
gob.mx/tepoztlan.htm
www.tepoz.com.mx gives good
directions for how to get there
If I weren’t already winded from the climb, I
would lose my breath each time I arrived at the
pyramid and looked out on the vast valley accentuated by jagged peaks. Tepoztlán is at the center of
it all, cradled by the surrounding mountains. Up
there, gazing, resting, hours pass like minutes. Returning to town in an exhausted euphoria,
I like to visit the weekend craft market. Vendors
sell sickles, poultry and legumes alongside incense, herbal remedies and tarot cards. Turn the
corner and an accordion player squeezes out “Bésame Mucho” and vies for patronage with a flutist
dressed as an Aztec warrior. How does the trip end? Like any good story in
Mexico – with a tequila and a cold michelada at
my favorite restaurant, El Ciruelo. ❚
P olitical edition
SEGOB Secretaria de Gober-
nación, Mexico’s Secretary of
the Interior. Part of the executive branch, segob is charged
with “security and democracy,
and the just enforcement of the
law.”
APPO La Asamblea Popular
del Pueblo de Oaxaca. The
Oaxaca-based organization
represents Section 22 of the
Oaxaca teacher’s union and
other community groups calling for the resignation of the
state’s governor.
November • 2006
PFP Policia Federal Preventiva,
Mexico’s federal police force.
GDF Gobierno del Distrito
Federal. Alejandro Encinas
holds the office of chief executive of the Mexico City government.
IFE Instituto Federal Electoral.
Created in 1990, it administers
and supervises Mexico’s federal
elections (President, Senators,
and Deputies). Its stated principles are “certainty, legality,
independence, impartiality and
objectivity.”
J o e
N a s h
One hell of a ride
by Catherine Dunn / Photo by Luz Montero
J
oe Nash has an ivy plant that is 45- or
46-years-old. It hangs by a window in
his house in the Colonia Guerrero, where
he lives just down the street from the National
Library and everyone in the neighborhood calls
him Señor Nash.
Over lunch at an Italian restaurant on Balderas, Joe (“Mr. Nash was my father”) smoked
Marlboro 100s and nursed Negro Modelo out
of a mug. He mentioned that the “bingo gals”
from the American Benevolent Society come to
his house every three months to play the game.
Joe is 93. He moved to Mexico in 1938 and he
arrived on a bicycle. The Rockford, Illinois native
pedaled against headwinds from Chicago to San
Antonio, Texas, then took a week to rest. He
convinced the Mexican Automobile Association
to sell him a membership in case of an accident
before he biked the rest of the way to Mexico City.
He left Mexico when he enlisted in the us
military in December, 1941, and returned in 1948
to study anthropology at Mexico City College. In
1951 he started working for the English-language
daily The News, where he worked until 1990. In
1952 he co-founded Democrats Abroad, which
now exists in more than 70 countries.
Joe set a precedent for the Society of American Travel Writers conventions when the head
of Mexican tourism offered him carte blanche to
organize the group’s 1962 gathering in Mexico.
He arranged a meeting between the president
of Mexico and a convention delegation, along
with 19 days of travel and conferences for 268
writers. The provinces had never hosted groups
of writers that big before, he said.
“We had the front page of the Chicago Tribune travel section for four weeks in a row,” he
added.
Joe also won a major award from the Mexican Association of Travel Agencies. John F.
Kennedy was the recipient the year before.
Before moving to Mexico, Joe worked as an
assistant cook in Yellowstone National Park,
wrote a Hollywood column from Los Angeles
that appeared in Catholic diocesan newspapers,
and researched the Galena, Illinois guide for the
Federal Writers Project.
One of Joe’s latest missions has been editing the 680-page, two volume memoirs of the
Mexican diplomat Dr. Luis Weckman, an effort
hampered by an accident in a Vips restaurant
in June 2005, when a busgirl ran into the back
of his head with a deep tub full of dishes. He
will wear a neck brace for the rest of his life, his
throat is crooked and sitting at a computer irritates his muscles.
Still, he makes his rounds.
“I play bingo on Saturday because it keeps
me alert,” Joe said, getting ready to hail a cab
home before the afternoon cloudburst. “Otherwise you don’t win.” ❚
InsideMéxico [ 11 ]
thetip Capsaicin (
cap - say - e - sin )
The alkaloid that makes chilli peppers hot. It contains at least five chemical components: three are
HOT and burn the throat and back of the palate;
two create the slow burn on the tongue.
¡
By Celia Marín
Photography:
Bertha Herrera
“S
alsas are a fundamental part not only
of gastronomy, but also of religion, a
part which was lost over the course
of time,” explains Gerardo Chapa, author of
the book One Hundred Salsas. “They were so
important that the calzontzin, chiefs of the
purépecha [an indigenous group from Michoacán], always had a female servant called a
yamati, whose sole duty was to serve salsas to
her master bare-breasted – a blend of eroticism
and culinary refinement.”
When passing through Cholula on the way to
Tenochtitlan in the 16th century, Bernal Diaz
del Castillo claimed to have escaped having his
own flesh cooked and doused with salsa. The
locals, he wrote, “wanted to kill us and eat our
meat” and “they already had the pots boiling
with salt and garlic and tomatoes.” Despite the
threat, he kept his cool and described a salsa
called chimole that was made of chili peppers,
tomato and salt – the same basic ingredients
found in contemporary Mexican salsa.
All over the country
Salsas are particular to the regional cuisines of
Mexico. In northern Mexico, they add a bit of
melted cheese; in the middle of the country they
prepare salsa with pasilla – a dark green chili that
turns black when it’s dried – accompanied by queso
cotija – a hard, Parmesan-like cheese. Hidalgo’s
xoconostle salsa is made with the morita chili and
goes perfectly with barbacoa. In the south, you’ll
often find salsas seasoned with pepper and achiote,
or annatto, seeds that create a yellow hue.
Ingenious new twists pop up all the time.
Salsa innovators use guava with mint, red
chinicuile worms and jumiles – a grasshopperlike insect, mango with apple, and habanero
chili with pineapple and basil.
When you sit down to eat, remember that
there’s no such thing as a good taco or quesadilla without a spicy salsa. ❚
Molcajetes
Red, mexicana
or salsa verde.
The taste
of Mexico is
always in the
salsas.
November • 2006
Entomofagous?
Well, if you’ve eaten chapulines, chicatanas, or escamole
you are. Entomofagia is the
Spanish word for insectivore.
achiote
Spiny pods from the
or annatto tree are cracked open to harvest scarlet seeds rich in vitamin A. These have been
used to color Mexican salsas, Jamaican
codcakes, and Cheshire cheese in England.
¡es la salsa!
Red Salsa
(15 servings)
Jalapeño Chili and
Cilantro Salsa
(15 servings)
ingredients
1/2 kilo of tomatoes
3 jalapeño chilis
2 garlic cloves
1 small onion
Salt to taste
preparation Roast the jalapeño chilis and
tomatoes in a comal (a clay
griddle) or anything else.
Grind them with the onion
and garlic in a blender. Season
with salt to taste. For a different version you may use
smoked árbol chilis instead of
the jalapeños.
Recipe courtesy of El Bajío.
Serrano Chili
and Avocado Leaf
Salsa
(15 servings)
ingredients
5 jalapeño chilis
1 bunch of cilantro
3 garlic cloves
1 small onion
3/4 cup of water
1/3 cup of olive oil
Thyme, oregano and bay leaf
to taste
Salt to taste
ingredients
ingredients
1 slightly roasted avocado leaf
3 seeded serrano chilis
1 small, peeled garlic clove
10 tomatillos (small green
tomatoes)
Corn oil as necessary
1/4 cup of finely chopped
onion
Salt to taste
preparation Chop the chilis, onion and
garlic in a food processor or
molcajete (stone mortar) and
add water. Put the mixture
in a salsa dish, add salt and
the chopped cilantro. Transfer the mixture to a glass jar.
Season with thyme, bay leaf,
salt and fresh oregano. Stir
slowly and gently pour in the
olive oil.
Recipe courtesy of El Bajío.
Jalapeño Chili Salsa
with Guava and Mint
(15 servings)
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 kilo of jalapeño chilis,
de-veined, seeded and finely
chopped
1/4 cup of white wine vinegar
1/4 cup of water
150 grams of ripe guavas,
seeded and finely chopped
15 mint leaves, cut in julienne
style
Salt to taste
preparation
Blend the avocado leaf with
the chilis, garlic and tomatoes
in a blender. Fry the mixture
for 5 minutes in a pan with
preheated oil. Remove the
salsa from the stove, add
the onion and salt. Cool and
serve.
preparation Heat the oil over low heat
and add the chilis. Add the
vinegar, water and guavas.
Boil over low heat for 20
minutes. Remove the sauce
from the stove, add the mint
and salt.
a good meal demands a good wine
for so many good reasons
oscar wilde 9
col. polanco, méxico, d.f.
5282 1066
5280 1834
entrevinos@prodigy.net.mx
November • 2006
One of Mexico’s
culinary masters talks about
the prominence
that Mexican
cuisine has
achieved over
the last decades
By Rubén Hernández
P h oto g r a p h y :
B e rt h a H e r r e r a
‘‘I
don’t really believe in
these titles like ‘Best
Mexican Chef of the
20th Century’. There
are chefs out there much
more talented than I am. Working here puts me in a unique and
privileged position, but the job has
its demands and comes with great
responsibility. Here at Hacienda de
Los Morales, the standard is high;
there’s room for tremendous creativity, but I also have to be very precise
in the work I do.”
An Unexpected Vocation
As is the case with many famous
chefs, Alejandro Heredia, Executive
Chef of Mexico City’s La Hacienda
de Los Morales, came to the profession by accident, and though he
fondly recalls his mother’s delicious
cooking, he says this was never an
influence in his culinary development.
“I wanted to be an architect, but
one of my neighbors told my parents that I’d never make a living at
it. I enrolled in a trade school, but it
turned out I was a terrible student.
I was in a crisis, when another
neighbor, a chef, told my parents
that one of his relatives just turned
down a job offer at the Hotel Presidente. So they decided that I should
take advantage of the situation,”
remembers Heredia.
“It was 1963,” he adds, “and I
didn’t have the least interest, but
I imagined myself working as a
bellboy or office boy or something
that ended in boy. What a surprise
when the next day they took me to
a kitchen and ordered me to wash
the greasy pans. I was annoyed and
disillusioned, and the first thing
I told my parents was that I was
never going back. But they were de[ 14 ] InsideMéxico
and Mexican Cuisine’s
Great Adventure
termined: they didn’t
want put themselves
into a difficult situation with the neighbor.”
“For me, the chef,
Joaquin Guzman, was
a horrible person, completely flawed. Now
I can see that he was
a great boss. Slowly I
discovered the magic
of earning money. I focused on work and put
in overtime until one
day I had the best salary in the whole group.
I was hungry to make
money, and colleagues
were jealous of me, but
no one worked like I
did,” he says.
“In 1965,” Heredia
continues, “I went
to the Continental
Hilton and discovered
a fantastic world. I was still very
ambitious, but at the Hilton, coming into contact with talented foreign chefs, with their ice sculptures
and chocolate and butter, opened
a window to a different universe.
I was working in the Belvedere, a
luxurious cabaret with great bands,
an elegant crowd, champagne and
a comida that was the pinnacle of
glamour. The Hilton changed my
life, I even learned about hamburgers, which until then I’d never
seen.”
During this time, Heredia met
people like Chef Jacques Bergerault,
with whom he’d work at the Camino
Real, and who became his great
friend. “He was a top chef, an impressive man,” he says of Bergerault.
“When I first went to work at
the Hilton, Bergerault came to
the street to greet me. He didn’t
know me, but he was so down to
A Person of Prestige
A
lejandro Heredia Resendiz was
named Mexican Chef of the 20th
Century during the First International
Congress of Chefs, and an honorary
member of the National Academy of
French Cuisine.
•He’s cooked for England’s Queen
Isabel, Spain’s royal family,
the first astronauts to go to the
moon, and former US Secretary
of State Henry Kissinger.
•He has represented Mexico in
international food festivals in
Switzerland, Italy, India, Japan
and France
•Heredia has been juried at the
Bocuse d’Or, in France, perhaps
the world’s most prestigious
cuisine competition.
•He received the American
Academy of Hospitality Sciences’
Diamond Five Star Award.
earth—no posturing, no attitude,
no superiority. With him, as with
other chefs, I learned many wonderful things. By now, work was more
than just a way of making money;
I was absorbed in learning new
dishes, and would lose all track of
time. I felt like I could eat the entire world! One time I worked three
consecutive days, non-stop.
“It’s a shame…we are not used to
working. Then we start complaining about the hours and want more
money, but we don’t think about
working more. I think that one
should have aspirations, and even
more, to be willing to pursue them.
In sync with the times, Heredia
got involved with French, Italian and other European cuisines.
Mexican cooking was just a footnote
in his repertoire. In 1968, he joined
a project at the Camino Real to create a dynamic Mexican cuisine, the
impact of which is still being felt
today. By 1982 Heredia had risen
through the ranks to the position of
Executive Chef; along the way, his
perception of Mexican cuisine had
evolved.
“It was at the Camino Real
where the revolution in Mexican
cuisine finally started to take
shape. Along with Chef Philippe
Seguin, we started to immerse
ourselves in new techniques, and to
change the sense of salsa, the size
of the portions and to use gentler
chiles. It was then that [Mexican
chef] Alicia de Angeli started to incorporate products like nopales and
huanzontles, and also to work with
what you might call fusion cuisine.
“Now young people are more
prepared, and have greater ambitions for success in the restaurant
business. Just look at the growing number of Mexican chefs who
are working in countries like the
United States.
“Personally, it’s been a privilege
to participate in the training of
young people who are now chefs
and have branched off into their
own businesses. I think it’s very
important to leave a legacy. Our
time here is short, but one way to
transcend that is to support and
nurture future generations. I’m
very proud to be a part of this process, it doesn’t matter if they end
up thinking you’re a disgrace or the
best in the world.
“The only thing keeping us from
realizing our dreams is the fear of
setting off on the adventure. We
work for money and for stability,
but I think that it’s also important
that we don’t limit ourselves in
what we think we can achieve.”
November • 2006
Celia Marin’s November Selection of
Mexican restaurants and house specialties.
Note: we have not translated the dishes so that
you will be able to find them on the menu.
Zona Norte
Izote
Masaryk 513 local 3,
Polanco
Tel. 5280-1671
Specialties: sopa
tarasca, crema de
elote, pollito de leche
rostizado con pasilla
a la nata y nopalitos.
Entremar
Hegel 307 letra B,
Polanco
Tel. 5531-2031
Specialties: tostadas
de atún, pescado a la
talla, tarta de higo y
pastel de merengue
Celia
Marín
Chiunti
El Lago
Lago Mayor, 2a.
Sección Bosque de
Chapultepec
Tel. 5515-9585 to 88
Specialties: aguachile
ligero de mariscos,
crema poblana con
camarones y tarta
crujiente de higos con
crema de limón
One of
Mexico’s top
food editors
and critics.
Each month
Celia will
recommend
you some of
the country’s
best menus
María Bonita
Hotel Camino Real
Mariano Escobedo 700,
Polanco
Tel. 5263-8888 ext 8451
Specialties: tradicional mexicana, abulón al chipotle al
chile nayarita, flor de calabaza
con rebozo y ensalada Frida
de flor de calabaza
Hacienda
de los Morales
Vázquez de Mella 525,
Polanco
Tel. 5096-3054, 3055
Specialties: queso de cabra
en hojaldres, crema de queso
con uvas y pastel de tres
leches
Villa María
Homero 704, Polanco
Tel. 5203-0306
Specialties: sopecitos clásicos,
sopa de tortilla Malitzin, carnitas y medallones al tequila
Los Arcos
Torcuato Tasso 330, Polanco
Tel. 5254-5624 y 5531-9696
Specialties: langostinos y camarones culichi, camarones
aguachile verdes y rojos, y
gelatina de guayaba
Pujol
Petrarca 254, Polanco
Tel. 5545-4111/3507
Specialties: lomo de cordero
con demi glase de mole Xico
y plátanos con crema
November • 2006
La Pigua
Alejandro Dumas 16,
Polanco
Tel. 5281-2437
& 5281-1302
Specialties: pan de
cazón, chile xcatic,
pulpo alcalparrado y
camarones
Jacarandas
Euler 11, Polanco
Tel. 5531-8936 / 0996
Specialties: mole poblano,
cerdo con verdolagas, arrachera y tampiqueñas
La Tecla
Moliere 56, Polanco
Tel. 5282-0010
Specialties: magret de pato
en salsa de tamarindo y
mango, tostadas de perejil
frito con queso de cabra y
guacamole
Águila y Sol
Moliere 42, Polanco
Tel. 5281- 8354
Specialties: guacamole tricolor con requesón y granada, huazontle con queso de
cabra y chayote gratinado
El Bajío
Av Cuitláhuac 2709,
Col. Clavería
Tel. 5234 -3763
Specialties: carnitas, mole de
olla, pastel de cajeta y nieve
de zapote
Mi Ciudad
Paseo de las Palmas 275 L-F
Lomas de Chapultepec
Tel. 5520-9084 / 1749
Specialties: chamorro a la
cerveza, pozole, mole poblano y crepas poblanas
November • 2006
The Migration South
More than a million
English speaking comstrong México’s
munity has grown dramatically
over the last decade. But the
story behind the numbers is
that this population is as diverse
as it is large.
México City
residents
From left to right:
Renee Harris, Tyler
Harris, Mary Lynn
Gatschet-León, Sarah
Bender and Jimm
Budd
B y M a rg ot L e e S h e t t e r ly
Additional Reporting by C at h e r i n e D u n n
P h oto g r a p h y : L u z M o n t e ro & sta f f
Where can a man go to get
some real living out of a pension
check—a place where it’s a
sunny 70° all year round, where
a five-room house can be had
for $40 a month and a live-in
maid for $16, where the family food bill may be measured
in pennies per day, with beer
at 80¢ a bottle and gin at 98¢
a quart? The answer to this
daydreaming question is not
nowhere; it’s Mexico.
–From“Down Mexico Way”
in the May 22, 1964 edition of Time
Magazine, on North Americans in
México’s Lake Chapala area
November • 2006
I
t’s 10 a.m. on a balmy September Saturday, and every table at Salvador’s, a big
American-style diner on the main drag
in Ajijic, is taken. Dogs of all sizes are
playfully pawing each other and nosing under their masters’ tables, eagerly hoping
for a stray morsel of chorizo. The parking lot is
jammed with cars with North American plates:
Texas, California, Florida, Ontario. Almost every snippet of overheard conversation is in English: What time is the horse show today, I haven’t
seen you and your dog in obedience classes lately,
Number ten comes with juice or fruit, No thanks,
just the check.
The Migration South
“We received a
warm welcome
from people here.
People here open
their lives up to
you“.
This is ground zero: the villages around Lake
Chapala are home to the largest population of
North Americans living in México. There’s a
temptation to run it down as being inauthentic,
not nearly Mexican enough for one’s adventurous gringo soul. But you’re forced to admit: the
place is beautiful, and yes, the famed climate is
delightful. It’s charming, with its narrow cobblestone streets and lush green gardens.
Today like most days, Bob Carpenter is in
the Ajijic plaza, sitting on a bench and reading
Mexican comic books to improve his Spanish. He’s
lived in Lake Chapala for 11 years, but his relationship with México goes back much further.
“I made up my mind when I was in my 20s that
I was going to retire in México,” says Carpenter,
74, a Toledo, Ohio native. Carpenter had traveled
to México while stationed with the U.S. Army in
El Paso, Texas, in the 50s. “You know, México
had a lot of attractions for a young man.”
According to the U.S. State Department’s
website, there are now “more than a half-million American citizens” living in México, but an
October 2005 study by Mexican cement giant
Cemex puts the number at more than a million. By some estimates, as many as 500,000
Canadians are thought to be living in México
full- or part-time, plus thousands of Brits, Irish,
Australians and New Zealanders, as well as
Germans, Japanese and others speaking English
as a second language.
Though many expatriates come to México to
work, particularly in urban centers like México
City and Monterrey, most choose smaller colonial cities and beach towns, for their beauty
and traditions, their slower pace and simpler
lifestyle.
Caren Cross, 60, a painter and retired psychotherapist living in San Miguel, has just completed a documentary on the life of Americans
living in the colonial city, called “Lost and Found
in México”. She and her husband came to San
Miguel on vacation and in 1998 decided to move
here, for reasons, she says, that “weren’t conscious.” Only in retrospect did she realize that
México provided a freedom that she was missing
back in the United States.
“I found that I could be more present, less harried, more attentive to whatever I’m doing rather
than living in the past or the future,” says Cross.
“And I think Mexicans are really good at that.”
Ellen Fields, 51, and her husband James, 50,
The story behind
Ellen & James Fields
Barbara Kastelein
Merida The Fields turned years of experience in the software industry into a
new business and a new life. “We didn’t
come here to get rich,” says Ellen. “We
came here to learn a lot, and we have.”
decided to move abroad after being laid off at a software company in 2001. They settled in Mérida and
now run YucatanLiving.com, a website for people
living in or considering a move to the area.
“We’re from California, and our knowledge
of México was really limited to the border. But
when we got here, we realized we didn’t know it
at all. We drove here from California and were
just blown away by the beauty of México.”
Barbara Kastelein, 40, born in Holland and
raised in England, is a México City based journalist, currently working on a book about the
Acapulco cliff divers. She traveled extensively
through México as a college student in the 1980s,
then moved to México in July 1995 when she fell
in love with her now-husband Luis.
“It wasn’t just for him by any means,” she
says of the move. “I fell in love with México first.
I hold by that. I’m still in love with México.”
Room for political ideals
Despite México’s internal history of political
repression, many outsiders have found it fertile
soil for their political and social ideals.
Father Glyn Jemmott, originally from Trinidad, had lived in the México College while study-
México City Barbara, who has lived
in México for 11 years, used to buy her
roundtrip plane tickets from England to
México. Three years ago she switched.
“When you always know you’re going…
home it’s quite different than when
you’ve decided not to.”
ing for the priesthood in Rome, and knew about
the Afro-Mestizo population living along the
coasts of Oaxaca and Guerrero. In 1985, after
spending a year in México City, time in Oaxaca’s
capital city and seven months in Pinotepa National, Jemmott became the parish priest in the
coastal village of El Ciruelo. The economic and
social development of the “pueblos negros” has
become his life’s work.
“It was the first time ever that they’d seen a
black priest. I knew from the beginning that our
common past would be a big part of my religious
mission.”
Artist Michele Gibbs and writer George Colman were active in the civil rights movement
and with other progressive organizations in the
United States. They left the country in 1980 when
Ronald Reagan was being nominated for President in Detroit, and lived in Grenada, Greece and
Jamaica before ending up in Oaxaca.
“We were looking for a culturally diverse place
to live outside the United States…we were in
Cuernavaca for the summer and heard some
things about Oaxaca,” says Colman, 78. “Things
went right immediately in Oaxaca. We had a
good feeling about the place. We received a warm
November • 2006
the numbers
México’s English-speaking community
is growing both in numbers and diversity
Caren Cross
Father Glyn Jemmot
Oaxaca Trinidadian Father Glyn has
been the parish priest for Oaxaca’s
Afro-Mexican communities for 21
years. “We have a moral obligation to
ensure that people can make a living
here without having to migrate.”
Lance & Jane Bird
Baja California Jane Bird has collected
Mexican popular art for 35 years, and next year
is planning to use her collection to open a folk
art museum in Ensenada. “We love México so
much; we’d like to leave something for México.”
welcome from people here. People here open
their lives up to you.”
A large and diverse population
México has long been a draw for artists and
writers, romantics and swells, adventurers,
outlaws and opportunists. Turn of the 20th century American, English, German and French
entrepreneurs prospered under the rule of President Porfirio Diaz, and 1920s and 30s México
captured the imagination of the world’s creative
class, including photographers Edward Weston
and Tina Modotti, and writers like Graham
Greene (The Lawless Roads), Malcolm Lowry
(Under the Volcano) and Tennessee Williams
(Night of the Iguana). After World War II, many
American soldiers moved to San Miguel de Allende to attend the Instituto Allende, an art
school, on GI Bill scholarships.
Much of the recent increase in México’s expat
population has been fueled by the 76 million
North American baby boomers who are now entering their “segunda juventud”, as the American
Association of Retired Persons (AARP) puts it.
The owners of the website SolutionsAbroad.
com, a resource for foreigners moving to and living
November • 2006
San Miguel Caren’s daughter
Carly, moved to San Miguel, and
Caren’s mom visits from Philadelphia once a year. The family
always celebrates Christmas
in San Miguel with their son,
Jordan, who lives in Virginia. “I
feel totally like I live in México,”
Cross says.
in México have noticed the trend. “We have seen—
especially in the last year—a tremendous shift in
the demographics of our users,” says founder and
President Agustin Barrios Gomez. “31% of our
site’s current users are retirees, compared to 15
– 17 % in our first four years of operation.”
But the story behind the numbers is that this
population is as diverse as it is large. Though
a lower cost of living is part of the appeal for
North American emigrants, it’s clear that for
most, the search for richer, more varied lives is
just as important.
“I don’t feel retired,” says Caren Cross. “No one
I know feels retired. I feel more alive than I’ve ever
felt.” She talks of 80-year olds learning Spanish.
“The old people here feel really young to me.”
Irma Trommlitz, 59, came to Puerto Vallarta on
vacation three years ago after years as a caregiver
for her parents. In her life, she’s studied for the
ministry, worked as a general contractor and was
a successful stockbroker. She’s now a real estate
agent living and working in Puerto Vallarta.
“People who are willing to pick up and leave
their country and build a life in a new place—
even if they’re outlaws—are pretty exceptional,”
she says.
A complex mix of identities
México’s North American residents express their
mix of nationality, culture and ethnicity in ways
that defy simple definition.
Michele Gibbs, 60, says, “I knew it was a
mistake when I was born in Chicago; it was a
very hostile environment…I was an individual
in three diasporas: Jewish, black and communist. My orientation was always international.”
Oaxaca is home, she says.
Ron Lavender moved to Acapulco in June of
1954 and “never looked back.” His company, Ron
Lavender y Asociados, is the oldest real estate
firm in the area. “I don’t think I’ve ever really
considered going back,” he says, though he feels
“considerable loyalty” to the United States.
Mexican-Americans are perhaps the fastest
growing subset of Americans moving to México.
In some real estate agencies in Baja California,
second- and third- generation Mexican-Americans account for 25% of new home sales, and an
increasing number of the Social Security checks
that are sent to México each month are destined
for Mexicans who have moved home after spending their working lives in the U.S.
The social issues facing this group can be
The Migration South
Bill Wolf
Age: 59
Elizabeth Villa
Age: 26
Lucille Alaka
Age: 79
Bob Carpenter
Age: 74
Maggie Goldberg José María Pezal
Age: 56
Age: 29
Sandra Thomson Michele Gibbs
Age: 56
Age: 60
George Colman
Age: 78
Renee Harris
Age: 50
Lives in: Oaxaca
From: San Francisco
Years in México: 16
Lives in: México City
From: Los Angeles
Years in México:
17 years off and on
Lives in: Oaxaca
From: Chicago
Years in México: 5
Lives in: Lake Chapala
From: Toledo, OH
Lives in: Isla Holbox
From: Canada/New
Zealand
From: Mallorca, Spain
months
From: New York
Years in México: 2
Lives in: Oaxaca
From: Pennsylvania
From: Wisconsin
Years in México: 2
Adriana Slemko
Age: 40
Natalie Vohnout
Age: 30
Dan McGrath and Darryla Green
Age: 53 and 64
Diana Ricci
Age: 82
David Boyle
Age: 37
David Sandler and Cathey Lopez
Age: 56 and 62
Jane Poindexter
Age: 69
Patrick Wiering
Age: 26
Lives in: Puerto Vallarta
From: Puerto Vallarta
and Toronto
Years in México:
40 off and on
Lives in: Puerto Vallarta
From: Canada/
Czechoslovakia
Years in México: 3
Live in: Oaxaca
From: Oregon
Years in México:
10 months
Lives in: Oaxaca
From: California
Lives in: Mérida
From: New York
Lives in: Oaxaca
From: Guatemala
Years in México: 4 ½
Lives in: Oaxaca
From: Philadelphia, PA
Years in México: 7
From: Holland
Years in México: 2
particularly complex. Some feel like outsiders in
the U.S. and Canada, and find that they’re still
between cultures when they’re in México.
Elizabeth Villa is a 26-year old student at
UCLA, majoring in Latin American studies
and minoring in English. Her parents are from
near Guadalajara and migrated to Los Angeles, where Elizabeth was born. She is now an
exchange student at the Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México (UNAM) in México City.
“We come here and we’re looked at as kind
of gringos,” she says. “If our Spanish isn’t great,
we’re totally criticized for it.” However, she says
she’s energized by the level of political activism
that she finds here in México, something she feels
is lacking in the U.S. She’s considering staying on
in México City beyond her year of study, maybe to
pursue a Master’s degree, perhaps to live.
Adriana Slemko, 40, was born in Puerto Vallarta to a Canadian mother and a Mexican father.
Since age 2, she has lived her life equally split
between Canada and México, and now works as
a real estate agent in Puerto Vallarta.
“When I’m in Canada, I’m Canadian,” she
says. “When I’m in México, I’m Mexican. I have
a dual mentality.”
“I think it’s a gross simplification to talk
about an expat community,” says John Gardner,
the head of Mexpat, a México City-based social
networking group. “There are expats who identify with specific neighborhoods, or by profession: business people, artists, parents, students,
teachers, journalists.”
Lance and Jane Bird have been coming to
México since 1976, and split their time between
Pasadena and their house in Bajamar, a residential development 25 miles north of Ensenada, in Baja California.
“We are in a community that’s largely Ameri[ 20 ] InsideMéxico
can, but we spend most of our time with Mexicans,” says Lance, 66. “Our Mexican friends
speak very good English, and there’s a very
lively social scene here.”
“For us, the most critical overlaps with the
expat community have to do with work,” says
Michele Gibbs. “The center of our social life is
not in the extranjero community.”
Still, there is no question that most expats
draw some support from their compatriots. Jane
Poindexter, 69, toured México in 1999 looking
for a place to retire. She rejected San Miguel as
having “too many Americans,” but chose Oaxaca
over other locations with fewer foreigners.
“Having a common language and common
points of reference is a wonderful thing,” says
Poindexter. “You don’t have to spend a lot of
extra time explaining yourself. I’ve found that
I have more in common with the gringo community than I expected.”
Community and change
As the English speaking enclaves grow larger,
divergent lifestyles and strains on infrastructure complicate the social dynamics.
“They should just put some kind of cap on development,” says an affable bespectacled Texan
waiting for a friend to join him for breakfast at
Salvador’s. He bought a house in a gated community in Ajijic four years ago. “They keep building, but the infrastructure just can’t support it.
There’s not enough electricity, there’s not enough
water. There’s just going to be gridlock.”
Bob Carpenter has enjoyed his time in Chapala but laments the changes. “There’s so much
more traffic here than there was before. I don’t
know how they’re going to handle it.”
“There is a whole big group of people in San
Miguel who don’t feel changed, and they pretty
Lives in: Oaxaca
From: Detroit, MI
much stick together in a cocktail circuit,” says
Caren Cross. “They see San Miguel more as a
retirement community.” Cross says she doesn’t
want to sound judgmental, but feels many come
to San Miguel “because they can have a maid
and a gardener and a big house and not spend a
fortune...they kind of see it as a playground.”
Oaxaca’s George Colman echoes the sentiment. “The character of the community has
changed. It’s been exploded and changed in
character. In the late ’80s we knew most everyone. We have no idea now.”
With some predicting as many as 10 million
North Americans to be moving to México over
the next 30 years, it’s unclear how the country
will deal with such a large and resource-hungry
influx of new residents.
The Baja Peninsula is the epicenter of the
Mexican real estate boom. Now that foreigners
can buy coastal properties through trusts called
fideicomisos, and with finance companies like
GMAC and GE Capital providing mortgage
loans on Mexican properties at U.S. rates, Baja
is being developed at a dizzying pace. Los Cabos,
a decade ago a fishing village of 10,000, is now
a boom town with 160,000 residents.
The Yucatan Peninsula is another hotspot.
Sandra Thomson, 54, has lived on Holbox Island,
a relatively undeveloped sandbar located 40
miles northwest of Cancun, for two years. She
owns Artesanía Las Chicas, a store that sells
yucateco clothing and handcrafts, and she’s also
a real estate agent. She says, “I have 15 clients
now looking to buy here, all of them American.”
Environmental damage and resource consumption are two big issues México faces in accommodating retiring North Americans. Redefining
Progress, an Oakland California-based think tank
publishes a survey of a country’s resource use,
November • 2006
Alexito
Age: 1
From: México City
Mariana
Gómez-Pimienta
de Rosen
Age: 32
Tyler Harris
Age: 17
From: México City
Max Uhler
Age: 64
Mitra
Age: 50
Tom Olberg
Age: 62
Anouschka and Yan Monroy
Age: 33 and 35
From: Italy
Years in México: 4
Lives in: Oaxaca
From:Minneapolis,mn
Years in México: 9
months
Lives in: Holbox
From: Canada/Iran
Years in México:
More than ten
Lives in: La Manzanilla
From: Minnesota
Years in México: 1
Live in: Guadalajara
From: Guadalajara and Madrid
Years in México: 14 and 1
Larry Bouchner
Age: 80
Ruth Gonzales
Age: 87
Irma Trommlitz
Age: 59
Sabine Persicke
Age: 38
Tom Law
Age: 73
Stan Gotlieb
Age: 69
Sue-Ellen Mason Marga Shubart
Age: 37
Age: 80
Mary Lynn
Gatschet-León
Marie Claire
Baud de Trey
From: Fairfield, CT
Years in México:
Moving this fall
Lives in: Oaxaca
From: Chicago
years
Lives in:
Puerto Vallarta
From: Oregon
Years in México: 3
Lives in: Oaxaca
From: Germany
From: New York
Years in México: 3
Lives in: Oaxaca
From: Minneapolis,
MN
From: New York
Years in México: 4
From: Belgium
From: Virginia
Years in México: 2
Francesca
Golinelli
Age: 29
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November • 2006
measured in terms of consumption of hectares of
land per capita (a hectare is 2.47 acres, about twoand-a-half football fields). In 2005, the average
American consumed 108.95 hectares; the average
Canadian, 83.03. The average Mexican consumed
just 23.14 hectares, but this number is certain to
increase rapidly if North Americans import their
consumption habits to their new home.
Healthcare is another issue. According to a
2006 study published by the Migration Policy
Institute (MPI), 35.5% of Americans seniors
living in México are enrolled in IMSS, (Instituto
Mexicano del Seguro Social) the Mexican social
security system. This eases the burden on the
creaky American Social Security system, but
increases the demand on a Mexican health care
system already in financial crisis.
A long term relationship
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Still, with every challenge comes opportunity.
In an interview with inside méxico (see page
seven), Jorge Castañeda, México’s Foreign Minister from 2000 through 2003 and currently
Professor of Politics and Latin American and
Caribbean Studies at New York University,
says that México should “do what it can” to
encourage baby-boomers to retire here. México,
he says, is uniquely positioned to capture value
from the incoming retirees.
He adds, “There will be a cultural impact, certainly, as there has been in the US with all the
Mexicans living there. However, I think this will
be in the best interests of both countries.”
Though the relationship between México and
its English-speaking residents is complicated, it is
also clearly symbiotic, and long-term. Our journey
to México is the southern counterpart to the Mexican migration north—a border-blurring, identityshifting explosion, less heralded to this point, but
perhaps just as powerful. Along the way it just
Jamie Rosen
Age: 36
Lives: México City
From: New York City
Years in México: 1 1/2
Lives in: Oaxaca
From: Evanston, IL
might change, in the most inclusive New World
fashion, what it means to be “American”.
Barbara Kastelein says living in México is
“like living in 20 countries.” She loves the artesanía and the people, but says there’s there is
“also something menacing, something unknown,
something challenging…the Pandora’s Box…I’m
attracted by something dangerous and edgy.”
“People who have lived here enough years, they
feel a commitment to México,” says John Gardner.
“It’s in the way they talk about politics, about
poverty gaps.” Indeed, during México’s recent long
and complicated election process, foreigners were
as likely to engage in lively (often heated) debate
about the Presidential candidates’ characters and
chances as native Mexicans.
Born in New York, Jimm Budd came down
to México City in 1958 to work for the Englishlanguage daily The News. He never thought
he’d be here for life.
“If you happened to go to San Francisco or
Los Angeles or Omaha and things worked out,
why should you leave?” he says. He thinks there
are two groups of people here: those “who are
going to be here for a brief time” and those “who
just came to stay.”
Perhaps the ultimate test of an emigrant’s
commitment to his or her new country is whether they are willing to be buried there.
“Yes, indeed, I do plan to die in México, and I
have told my daughter I want my ashes thrown
from the highest mountain top she can find with
a view of [the city of Oaxaca],” says Jane Poindexter. On her scouting trip in 1999, Poindexter fell
in love with México’s esqueletos, calaveras and
Catrinas, and the culture’s ease with and humor
regarding death. “After this visit, when I got back
to Philadelphia, I wrote about the trip and the last
sentence was “I want to die in México because the
dead there seem to have so much fun.” ❚
“I think México City
is its startlingness.”
by C at h e r i n e D u n n
A
p h oto g r a p h y : L u z M o n t e ro
ccording to Phil Kelly, it’s
“absurd that all the swimming pools in the world are
blue.” Tacked to the wall of his
Colonia Cuauhtémoc studio is
a design scheme to remedy that: nudes in
yellow and black.
Kelly paints oil canvasses with his hands
and wipes them off on a wall in the back
hallway. Piles of newspapers and magazines,
jugs of turpentine and linseed oil, and a table
covered in Victoria bottle caps, paint tubes
and cardboard boxes stuffed with photos and
clippings spill over the room. His CD collection is a heap of discs and cases. The walls
are papered with his work. A shower curtain
hangs over the window that looks out to
Circuito Interior.
The chaos is so artful, such a beautiful
mess, that when he says, “I really should tidy
the place up sometime,” and then pops open a
Victoria, you can’t believe that he ever would.
Born in Ireland and raised in England,
Kelly first came to México in 1982. He lived
above a “knicker shop” and taught English
at a company located on the road to Toluca.
He would wake up at 5 a.m to cross the city
on the bus, edge along the side of the carretera, and arrive by 7.
His city scenes radiate the hecticness of
the ordinary: jumbled buildings, blurred
crowds, streaming traffic, decaying footbridges. “You make a select poetry out of the
everyday,” he says.
Kelly cooks (the day after this interview
he was going to make roast beef for Nick McCarthy, the bass player for the group Franz
Ferdinand), listens to jazz, works in the
studio seven days a week and likes it when
other people smoke – even though he himself
does not. He is married to Ruth Munguia
and has two daughters. He became a Mexican citizen in 1999.
Why did you come here?
I tossed a coin … I thought if I came here
I could either walk north or south and if I
didn’t find anything on the way I could jump
off at the end.
I came here and I had, like, $50 and I
spent half of it on a night in the hotel looking
through the yellow pages for English schools,
and then like the third one that I came
across, they said ‘well, we might have some
work and we have somebody that wants to
share an apartment.’
What was the other side of the coin toss?
Paris … I spoke a little French, and you
know the silly tradition about Paris and
painters.
How did you get here?
I flew to Huron, South Dakota.
From?
London. I had a friend there … I’d go out
and try and draw, but there’s nothing to
kelly, in his typical painter’s garb, in front of the designs that he thinks would liven up all the world’s blue swimming pools.
p h i l
k e l l y
A painter’s life
draw in Huron, South Dakota … I used to go
down there and go draw the rail yards. And
I did a whole sort of series of paintings about
street corners, about the sort of vocabulary
of asphalt. Yellow lines and drains – because
there’s nothing else to draw.
Did you ever think you’d be able to survive off the painting?
Everybody always told me it was impossible … It doesn’t actually solve anything,
but it helps [the depression] … I have a
whole wall out there of, like, sayings to try
and alleviate my depression. It doesn’t solve
anything, but it helps. It’s the only thing I’ve
ever found that helps.
In your own work is there, above all,
a passion that you have for cities, or is it
México City in particular?
If I go somewhere else I draw or paint
wherever I go. In general it’s a fascination for
the movement and the poetry.
What do you think distinguishes the urbanscape of México City from other cities?
It’s sort of vibrancy.
I spend hours out on that balcony, watching … there always seem to be one element, or
little element, that makes you startled. I think
Artist’s studio Watch where you step. Kelly doesn’t
like to leave white space on the walls, and his canvasses,
painted with oils, take about six months to dry.
November • 2006
First flight
by Frank Kosa
The sones veracruzanos of Tapacamino will make
your feet tap and your spirit soar
T
artwork Kelly paints with
his hands and tries to finish
one painting a day.
top Vista nocturna del Ángel,
2006
left Sin título
bottom
Circuito mochado, 1999
México City is its startlingness. It’s a bit like the
similar thing that Henry Miller had with Paris,
accidents and incidents of everyday life.
I used to read books and books and books
and books, and then I came to México and I
almost stopped reading because you read the
streets. You don’t actually have to get books.
So most of the paintings are about reading the
streets. Like “voto por voto.”
Do you start your paintings by drawing
them first?
There’s no specific way, but generally the
idea to start with is just to get rid of the white
canvas. Sometimes I stain it with whatever’s
around, sometimes I make some marks …
there’s no actual rules. I think I’m actually
against rules in general.
Do you think that living in México suits a
person who’s against rules in general?
I think in México here we’re in favor of
inventiveness rather than rules. The whole
thing is a bit like it’s improvisation, and that’s
what’s so wonderful about jazz, you know? It’s
based on the improvisation. ❚
Phil Kelly’s work is currently on display at the Museo de la
Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, Antiguo Palacio
del Arzobispado, Moneda 4, Centro Histórico
November • 2006
kelly, on living here
“I think in México
here we’re in favor of
inventiveness rather
than rules.”
radition is one of México’s charms. Breaking
with tradition is the artist’s
constant temptation. Tapacamino
delivers old-style son veracruzano
with a sophisticated new touch
–the addition of a cello.
The first time I saw Tapacamino, the band was performing
for conventioneers at a hotel in
downtown Oaxaca City. The
group plays their own brand of the
traditional son veracruzano, which
literally translates to “Veracruz
sound,” or, “song in the Veracruz
style.” Most people think of son as
a Cuban musical genre, but variations are found all over rural Latin
American, in places where indigenous, Spanish, and African traditions came together. The swampy,
gulf coast of the Mexican state of
Veracruz is one such place.
If you don’t know the music
imagine, in simultaneous combination, a hip-hop beat, the rapid
percussion of Irish step dancing, and Hank Williams’ plaintive
wail. The rhythm comes at you
from every direction – from the
strumming of the country guitars
(jaranas), from the counterpoint of
Spanish triplets in the bass and the
lead guitar, and from the staccato
tapping of the dancers’ feet atop
an acoustic platform.
Referring to how Tapacamino
got started, the group’s veracruzano founder, Fernando Guadarrama Olivera, says, “It was just an
experiment.” Guadarrama, who
plays the jarana, would jam with his
friend Rodrigo Diaz Bueno, a classically-trained cellist. “The fusion
of the string instruments, classical and traditional styles, worked
better than anyone imagined. The
cello brings so many colors. It can
add nostalgia and happiness at the
same time,” says Guadarrama.
In September of 2005, the two
musicians decided to see if their
fusion would fly outside the practice room. To their nucleus, they
added another guitar, two singer-dancers and a bass. They took
their name, Tapacamino, from
a bird that inhabits the jungles
of southern México and Central
America and comes out at night to
sing until sunrise. With these additions of musicians and a name,
they had a band.
Last spring, the group won the
top prize at a Oaxacan state contest celebrating the importance
of water, the Canción del Agua, for
best original song. The competition pitted Tapacamino against
nearly 100 musicians, including
rockers, balladeers, and hip-hoppers.
Their winning song, entitled
“Agua Diosa,” is a lament in the first
person of the Aztec water goddess,
Chalchiutlicue. It begins with a lugubrious cello solo and then kicks suddenly into th e up-tempo rhythm of
the traditional son.
In the lyrics, you’ll discover a
slyly sensual environmental theme,
as Chalchiutlicue wishes for the
wet rapture of nature unbounded:
Quiero que tupa la fronda
Y nos traiga la humedad
Bendita felicidad
De la selva y de su sombra...
The translation fails the subtlety and the beauty of the Spanish,
but here’s the basic idea:
I want the foliage to grow over
And bring us the warm tropical damp
Blessed happiness
Of the jungle forest and her shade…
“Agua Diosa” is one of those
rare tunes that manages to be both
haunting and danceable. It will be
featured on the group’s first CD,
due out later this fall.
The triumph of Tapacamino’s
music is that it seamlessly integrates the ancient and the modern. In their mix of classical and the
rural forms, Guadarrama and Diaz
have created a soulful sound that
doesn’t compromise the simple,
party groove of the son veracruzano.
The convention center in Oaxaca seemed an oddly urban venue
for this campesino music. Yet, as
Tapacamino started to play, the
context became the music. The
band’s exuberance drew the crowd
to its feet, carried it along for several hours of frenzied dancing,
and left it, at the end of the night,
sweaty, exhausted, and blissful,
like Chalchiutlicue with her lover in
the jungle.
Tapacamino plays Thursday nights at
Café Central in Oaxaca. For more information on how to get the upcoming CD
email Fernando Guadarrama at:
fguadarramao@hotmail.com
Frank Kosa is a journalist and documentary filmmaker who recently spent
a year in Oaxaca. He can be reached at
piefilms@adelphia.net
October&November
20|
Lucha Libre
Arena México
Every Friday is fight night
Dr. Lavista 189, Doctores
8:30 p.m.• 5588-4922, 5588-1561
www.cmll.com
21| Survive
with her
| Ofrenda
26
Monumental de Muertos
Ex Templo de San Jerónimo,
Universidad del Claustro de
Sor Juana
Inauguration at 7 p.m.
Izazaga 92, Centro.
Monday – Friday: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Exhibit open until Nov. 15
Teatro Metropólitan
Independencia 90, Centro
Joaquín |
27 Sabina
8:30 p.m. • Ticketmaster
Auditorio Nacional
Gloria Gaynor in concert
21|
Festival Cervantino
Guanajuato or bust: last weekend of the Cervantino Festival.
www.festivalcervantino.gob.
mx/Ficesmas
Press
| World
24
Photo 2006 Exhibit
Winners of the world’s most
important international photojournalism contest
Oct. 12 – Nov. 12
Museo Franz Mayer
Hidalgo 45, Centro
Tues – Sun: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Wed: 10 a.m. – 7 p.m.
25|
Meet and mix Mexpat
Cash bar at Le Bouchon
Julio Verne 102, Polanco
8 p.m. • Last Wed of every month
8:30 p.m.
Tickets: Ticketmaster
28| American
Football
Pumas CU v. Linces
Estadio Olímpico Universitario
12 p.m. • ww.onefa.org
2
November
The people of Mixquic, about 25 miles southeast of México City, open
their doors to visitors to view their family altars. Intricate images created
from Cempazúchitl flower petals adorn graves in the local cemetery and a
street fair fills the main thoroughfare. Pick up a loaf of pan de muerto and a
skeletal Catrina doll.
29|
9|
Set clocks back one hour at 2 a.m.
Presented by the American
Chamber of Commerce
Daylight Savings
–November–
2|
Festen
(La Celebración)
Play starring Diego Luna and
Diana Bracho
Teatro Helénico
Revolución 1500
Shows Thurs – Sun for 10 weeks
Info: 3640-3139
www.festenmexico.com
8
October
Ballet Folklórico de México
Palacio de Bellas Artes
Regular shows on Wednesday and Sunday
Juárez 1, w.Eje Central, Centro
8:30 p.m. • Ticketmaster, and 5512-2596, 5521-9251
Day of the Dead
LUZ MONTERO
–October–
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Hotel Nikko
Campos Eliseos 204, Polanco.
Call for reservations info: 51413850 or 5141-3800 ext. 3224
www.amcham.com.mx
Newcomers |
10 Club
General Meeting and Shopping
Bazaar
Union Church
9 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Paseo de la Reforma 1870,
Lomas de Chapultepec
5520-6912
www.newcomers.org.mx
Bingo! |
11 Bingo
American Legion
4:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Celaya 25, Condesa.
$30/ 10 games • 5564-4490
14|
Salma Hayek.
Kate Moss.
Justo Sierra 16, Centro
Oct. 4 – Jan. 28, 2007
www.sanildefonso.org.mx
Día de la
|
20 Revolución
“It is better to die on your feet
than to live on your knees.”
- Emiliano Zapata
Three-day weekend to commemorate the Revolution of 1910
23|
US Thanksgiving
Turkey?
Make that tacos al pastor.
24|
Julieta Venegas
Auditorio Nacional
8:30 p.m. • Ticketmaster
Bazaar |
25 del Sábado
Art and artesania
Plaza de San Jacinto, San Ángel
Every Saturday • Starts at 9 a.m.
Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso
Hash House |
26 Harriers
Tues – Sun: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Bike, run or walk.
Mario Testino Portraits
The pollution only helps you
burn more calories.
Section 2 in Chapultepec park
Every Sunday at 10:30 a.m.
Meet at Paco’s juice stand,
across Del Lago restaurant’s
parking lot.
http://mchh.com
reading: 30| Book
Robin Pascoe
Best selling expat author of
Raising Global Nomads and A
Moveable Marriage
Presented by Mexpat, SolutionsAbroad.com and ExpatWomen.com
Librería Pegaso, Casa Lamm
Álvaro Obregón 99, Roma
R.S.V.P.: 5280-2223,
www.solutionsbroad.
com,www.mexpat.com
8 p.m.
MN $50 donation
All prices listed in Mexican
pesos.
For Ticketmaster sales, call
5325-9000, or visit www.ticketmaster.com.mx for sales and
Ticketmaster locations.
Got a date? Email: calendar@insidemex.com
November •2006
The countess’s green court
Valet parking is a sport in this colonia that was once home to a
horse race track. Wind your way through the tree-lined streets as
you go dog walking or bar hopping.
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” Anaís Nin
Condesa
Bars
2. Black Horse
Mexicali 85
5211-8740
Tues – Sat: 5 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Sun – Mon: closed
www.caballonegro.com
Pub with live music
3. Cinna Bar
Nuevo León 67-1
5286-8456
Mon – Wed: 7 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Thurs – Sat: 7 p.m. – 2:30 a.m.
Payment: all cards • Valet parking
Prices: $110 martinis exóticos
www.cinnabar.com.mx
Thai and Vietnamese fusion dining
4. Condesa d.f.
Veracruz 102
5241-2600
Sun – Tues: 1 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Wed – Sat: 1 p.m. – 1:30 a.m.
Prices: $115 cocktails
Restaurant opens for breakfast,
lunch and dinner; Mart Sushi Bar
on the terrace opens at 7 p.m.
5. El Mitote
Ámsterdam 53
5211-9150
Prices: tapas from $45 to $125
Tapas bar
6. Elodia y Sus Bondades
Mazatlán 138
5286-9126
Mon – Wed: 1:30 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Thurs – Sat: 1:30 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Sun: closed • Payment: all cards
Valet parking
Beer, bar and botanas
7. La Botica
Alfonso Reyes 120
Mon – Sat: 5 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Sun: closed • Payment: cash only
Mezcal, mezcal cocktails and
tamales
8. La Cabaña del Tio Manolo
Campeche 415
Mon – Wed: 6 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Thurs – Sat: 6 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Payment: cash only
Rock & Roll and burgers
November •2006
9. La Cervecería
Vicente Suárez 38-H
5212-1421
Mon – Sat: 12 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Sun: 12 p.m. – 1:30 a.m.
Payment: all cards
Mariscos, beer and bar
10. Pata Negra
Tamaulipas 30
5211-5563
Mon – Sun: 1:30 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Prices: $95 El Martini Pata
Negra, $35 beer
www.patanegra.com.mx
Jazz and tapas
11. St. Patrick’s Pub
5553-4353
Sun – Wed: 2 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Will deliver: 2 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Prices: pizzas from $90 to $160
15. Agapi Mu
Greek
Alfonso Reyes 96
5553-4167, 5286-1384
Tues – Sat: 1:30 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.
Sun – Mon: 1:30 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Payment: all cards•Valet parking
Average cost: $150
Greek dancing Thurs, Fri, Sat
16. Barracuda Diner
Campeche 410
5211-3330
Mon – Sun: 12 p.m. – 2 a.m.
www.pubmexico.com
More than 30 imported beers
American diner
Nuevo León 4-A
5211-9480
Sun – Wed: 1 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Average cost: $120 to $150
Will deliver within 5-6 blocks
Late night
17. Bistrot Continental
12. A.M.
Nuevo León 67-2
5286-8572
Wed – Sat: 10 p.m. – 3:30 a.m.
Cover • www.amlocal.com
Fusion
México 157
5564-6810
Send-us-Suggestions line:
Have a favorite bar, taco stand, art gallery or yoga center?
Send us your city-wide suggestions – all of them! theguide@insidemex.com
Mon – Sun: 1 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Average cost: $250
Fondue overlooking Parque México
Average cost: $250
Carry-out orders
18. Bistrot Mosaico
Salads, baguettes and pizza, bar
Parras 73-B
5553-3065
Mon – Sat: 10 a.m. – 2 a.m.
Sun: 1 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Payment: all cards
Will deliver in Condesa
21. Don Keso
French and International
Michoacán 10
5584-2932 (they don’t take
reservations)
Mon – Sat: 1 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.
Sun: 1 – 5:30 p.m.
Average cost: $300
Small bakery and deli inside
22. El 10
Argentine
Alfonso Reyes 66
5553-0734
Mon – Sun: 1 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Payment: cash only
Valet parking
Average cost: $150
Will deliver
Benjamín Hill 187
5276-2616
Same hours
19. Café La Gloria
French home cooking
Vicente Suárez 41-D
5211-4185
Sun – Wed: 1 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Average cost: $150
20. Capicúa
Spanish tapas
Nuevo León 66
5211-5280, 5286-3697
Mon – Sat: 1 p.m.– 1 a.m.
Sun: closed
23. El Jamil
Lebanese
Ámsterdam 306
5564-9486
1. Barney’s A chill bar in bold
10. Salón Pata Negra
Tamaulipas and Juan Escutia
(above Pata Negra)
2454-9378
Tues – Wed: 10 p.m. – 3:30 a.m.
Thurs – Sat: 9 p.m. – 3:30 a.m.
Billiards
13. Malafama
Michoacán 78
5553-5138
Sun – Wed: 10 a.m. to 12 a.m.
Thurs: 11 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Friday – Sat: 11 a.m. – 2 a.m.
Payment: cash only
Prices: $80/hour of pool
Restaurants
14. 50 friends
Italian
Cadereyta 19
Fernando Montes de Oca 43
5212-0007
Sunday – Monday: closed
Payment: all cards except
American Express
Valet parking
Average cost: $250
Dig that red interior with pizza,
the bourbon-and-grenadine
Red Rider cocktail and live rock
on Saturdays.
Condesa, cabeza cinco palabras cinco
Texto
de introducción,
veinticinco
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texto simulado
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cabeza
cinco
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cinco texto de
30. Mibong
Thai, Malaysian, Vietnamese
Campeche 396-B
5211-2078
Sun – Wed: 1 p.m. – 12:30 a.m.
Thurs – Sat: 1 p.m. – 1:30 a.m.
36. The Green Corner
Mazatlán 81 Local 1-2
5286-3939
Mon – Sun: 7:30 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Average cost: $80
www.thegreencorner.com
37. Frutos Prohibidos y
Otros Placeres
Ámsterdam 244-B
5264-5808
Mon – Friday: 8 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Sat – Sun: 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Payment: cash only
Average cost: $60
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Mon – Sat: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Payment: all cards
www.elhijodelsanto.com.mx
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42. La Selva Café
cán
Italian-Mexican fusion
Atlixco 105
5211-1640
Sun – Wed: 8 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Thurs – Sat: 8 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Average cost: $200
Natural Fare
39. Coffee Shop El Hijo
del Santo
o
29. Mamá Rosa’s
International restaurant/bar
Ámsterdam 76
5553-3902
Mon – Sat: 1 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Sun: 1 p.m. – 10 p.m.
Promedio: $200 to $250
Cafés
40. Finca Santa
VeraCruz
a
Cnuli
acá
Contemporary fusion
Nuevo León 68
5286-6268, 5286-6380
Tues – Sat: 2 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Sun: 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Mon: closed • Valet parking
Average cost: $300
35. Segundo Paso
38. La Buena Tierra
Atlixco 94
5286-4095, 5211-0250
Sun – Thurs: 8 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Friday – Sat: 8 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Payment: all cards
Valet parking • Will deliver
Average cost: $105 lunch
Culi
28. Ligaya
French
Ámsterdam 71-C
5211-3705
Mon – Thurs: 2 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Friday – Sat: 2 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Sun: 2 p.m. – 6 p.m.
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Oyster bar and seafood
Atlixco 94
5211-0250, 5256-0157
Mon – Sun: 1 p.m. – 1 a.m.
Will deliver (5286-5309)
Average cost: $250
34. Rojo Bistrot
León
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27. La Morena
Japanese
Michoacán 25
Mon – Sat: 1 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.
Sun: 1 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Payment: all cards
Valet parking • Will deliver
Average cost: $200
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Hamburguesas al carbon, Argentine dishes
Corner of Michoacán and Vicente Suárez
Mon – Sat: 9:30 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Sun: 11 a.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Payment: cash only
Prices: $60 for a burger, fries
and a soda
33. Restaurante Daikoku
AG
26. La Esquina del Mercado
Uruguayan beef and pizza
Michoacán 77
5286-0789, 5553-2831
Mon– Thurs: 1:30 p.m.– 11:30 p.m.
Friday – Sat: 1:30 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Sun: 1 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
Average cost: $150
DI
Crepes and salads
Michoacán 103
5286-0049
Mon – Sun: 7 a.m. – 1 a.m.
Payment: all cards
Valet parking
Average cost: $170
32. Parrillada Uruguaya
Don Asado
Chilp
25. La Creperie de la Paix
Eclectic
México 117
5574-7464
Mon – Sat: 8 a.m. – 12 a.m.
Sun: 8 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Payment: all cards
Average cost: $150
á
Japanese
Vicente Suárez 42
5286-0712, 5286-0795
Tues – Sat: 1 p.m. – 12 a.m.
Sun – Mon: 1 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Payment: all cards
Valet parking
Will deliver
Average cost: $180
31. Orquídeas
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Drinks
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24. El Japonez
Payment: all cards
Co
sal
Mon – Thurs: 2 p.m. – 11 p.m.
Friday – Sat: 2 p.m. – 11:30 p.m.
Sun: 1 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Payment: all cards
Valet parking
Average cost: $300
Zam
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México 13-C
1054-6558
Sat: 9 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Payment: cash only
Will deliver
www.finca.com.mx
Vicente Suárez 38-C
5211-5170
Mon – Sun: 8 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Payment: all cards
www.laselvacafe.com.mx
43. Piccolo Toscano Café
Vicente Suárez 114-E
Same hours
Michoacán 30-A
5584-3681
Mon – Sun: 7 a.m. – 10:30 p.m.
Payment: cash only
41. La Esquina del Té
44. The Village Café
Ámsterdam 55
5553-9081
Mon – Sat: 9 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Sun: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Payment: all cards
Tongue Tied?
Multilingual Translation Services
Deutsch
English
Español
Tamaulipas 99 • 5211-0446
Sun – Wed: 8 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Thurs – Sat: 8 a.m. – 1:30 a.m.
Payment: all cards
www.villagecafe.com
Rowena
Galavitz
focusing on art and culture…
Translation
(Spanish to English)
Specializing in Legal, Migratory, Medical,
Bureaucratic, Transactional and Bank
Documents
Editorial coordination
Copyediting and
proofreading
Sabine Persicke K.
S_persicke@yahoo.com.mx
References available
Look me up on the Internet or contact me at:
rowenagalavitz@yahoo.com
References available
November •2006
Bookstores
Markets
45. Cafebrería El Péndulo
50. Mercado Michoacán
Bookstore, café and restaurant
Nuevo León 115
5286-9493
Sat – Sun: 9 a.m. – 10 p.m.
Payment: all cards
Valet parking
www.pendulo.com
46. Centro Cultural
Bella Época
Rosario Castellanos
Bookstore, cafeteria, movie theatre and gallery
Tamaulipas 202
5276-7110, 5276-7139
Sun – Thurs: 9 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Friday – Sat: 11 a.m. – 12 a.m.
www.fondodeculturaeconomica.com
47. Conejoblanco
Bookstore and café
Ámsterdam 67
5286-7430
Sun – Wed: 9 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Thurs – Sat: 9 a.m. – 12 a.m.
www.conejoblanco.com.mx
Nieves & ice cream
48. Nevería Roxy
Mazatlan 80
Mon – Sun: 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Cash only
Have a sundae at the counter
Tamaulipas 161
Same hours
49. Tepoznieves
Michoacán 30-A
Mon – Sun: 11 a.m. – 8:30 pm
Payment: Cash only
Between Michoacán and
Vicente Suárez
Mon – Sun: 8 a.m. – 6 or 7 p.m.
Produce, meat and comida corrida
stands
Tacos
51. El Califa de León
Altata 22, corner of Alfonso
Reyes
5271-7666, 5271-6285
Will deliver 1:30 p.m. – 3:30 a.m.
56. Colectivo 7
58. Modifica
53. El Tizoncito
59. NaCo.
Tamaulipas 122
Yautepec 126-B
Mon – Sat: 12 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Payment: Visa and MasterCard
www.chidochido.com
Chilango slang on T-shirts
Shopping
Taxi Sitios
54. 5 L-Mento
60. Sitio de Parque México
Cuernavaca 79
3186-0972
Mon – Sat: 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Sun: 1 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Payment: all cards
Furniture, bicycles, clothes, lamps
and accessories
55. Artefacto
Amatlán 94
5286-7729
Sat: 12:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Sun: 12:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Payment: all cards
Fine artesania and textiles
66. Fernando Montes de
Oca and Tamaulipas
Mazatlán 152-A
5553-5334
Mon – Sat: 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Payment: varies by item
Mexican icon kitsch
Corner of Ensenada and
Campeche
Campeche 362-A
5211-5139, 5286-5374
Will deliver
Flower Stands
57. El Milagrito
Ámsterdam 289
5264-4055
Mon – Sat: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Sun: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m.
Payment: all cards
Vases, lamps and picture frames
52. El Kalimán
Prices: USA and Canada
$2.50/ minute, England,
Australia and New Zealand
$3/mttinute
Ámsterdam 92
5553-1793
Mon – Sat: 11 a.m. – 3 p.m., 4 p.m. – 8 p.m. • Sun: closed
Seven designers pool their collections.
Michoacán and Ámsterdam
5286-7164, 5286-7129
61. Sitio 262
Vicente Suárez and Nuevo León
8590-6720, 8590-6721
Fitness and Dance
62. Dance Proyect
Mazatlán 161
5553-4802, 5553-4803
Classes: jazz, ballet, hip-hop,
tap, yoga, belly, pilates, salsa and
zumba
67. Tamaulipas and
Alfonso Reyes
Parque México
Get a dog. Take her for a walk.
Make new friends.
Prices: $80/class, various
packages
www.danceproyect.com.mx
One free demo class
63. Qi
Ámsterdam 317
5564-6406, 5584-8377
www.qi.com.mx
Gym, rock climbing wall, spa,
meditation room, yoga, pilates and
more
Video Rental
64. Videodromo
Alfonso Reyes 238
5211-1932
Mon – Sun: 12 p.m. – 10 p.m.
www.videodromo.com.mx
Home delivery!
Int’l Calls
65. Call Back
Fernando Montes de Oca 46
5211-2976
Sat: 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
68. Ámsterdam and
Sonora
69. Ámsterdam and
Michoacán
Parks
70. Parque México
71. Parque España
Supermarket
72. Superama
Michoacán 38
Mon – Sun: 7 a.m. – 11 p.m.
Pharmacy open same hours
comunity
organization
73. American Legion
Celaya 25
5564-4490 (office hours, Tuesday – Friday)
Tues – Sun: Bar and restaurant
1 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Tuesday: Jazz starts at 3:30 p.m.
Friday: Bar 5 - 11 p.m., Happy
Hour 5 – 7 p.m. with live music
Saturday: Bingo from 4:30– 6:30
p.m., $30 pesos/10 games
unasletras.com
November •2006
isyour
Driving into
and around
México…
legally
A
B y A r a n S h e t t e r ly
couple of months
ago, a friend of
mine called from
Brownsville, Texas. “Hi Aran,” he
said with the tense and slightly worried tone of a person
bracing himself for confusing
red tape in a foreign language,
“I just wanted to make sure I
have my documents in order
before I cross the border (see
box).”
“Do you own your car outright or are you paying down
a car loan?” I asked. When my
wife and I drove into México,
our entry had been delayed
Paper
trail
What you
need at the
border
1 Passport (as of January 8, 2007, a passport
will be required of all
individuals entering
México).
2 Valid US, Canadian,
or International driver’s
license.
3 Vehicle Registration
for a day and a half when we
learned at the last minute
that the customs officials at
the border would require a
letter from the lending bank
before allowing our car into
the country. That letter came
at a steep price: a year’s car
payments in advance.
Alex, not the bank, owned
his car and he did have all
the proper documents, but
he continued, “I’m confused
about something. The visa
that accompanies my Fulbright Fellowship lasts nine
months. When I cross into
México they are going to give
me a six month permit for the
car. Does this mean that they
will confiscate my car after
six months?”
“No,” I answered, “You are
OK.”
If I hadn’t faced a similar
dilemma a month earlier I
Certificate or Vehicle Title in the driver’s name.
4 Lease contract if the
vehicle is leased or
rented.
5 Notarized letter of
permission from lien
holder if you bought
your car with a loan.
6 Proof of Mexican
auto insurance.
7 An international credit
card to post bond on
the car, OR between
$200 and $400 USD
in cash that will be returned to you when you
cross the border back
into the United States
with your car.
Gail Page
car
illegal?
wouldn’t have known what
to say. In June, as the expiration date for our tourist visas
(FM-Ts) drew near, our application for residency visas
(FM-3s) had not yet been accepted. We could fly out of the
country and return, thereby
renewing our FM-Ts for another three months. But what
about the car? According to
what I could find on the internet, a foreign-owned car
is allowed to stay in México
only six months out of every
twelve. Therefore, if we left
México by car and attempted
to return a few days later, the
border authorities would let
What you
need
driving
around
México
1 Tourist (FM-T) or
residency (FM-3/2)
visa copy.
2 FM-3 solicitation
form copy in the
name of the car importer, if your FM3
is in process.
3 Marriage certificate copy if you are
driving with your
spouse and he/she
might drive too.
4 Article 106 of
the Customs Law
- Ley Aduanera copy
- (find it at www.
insidemex.com).
5 A copy of the 2006
External Commerce
Rule number 3.2.6.
(find it at www.
insidemex.com)
6 Customs Office
General Administration phone number
in México City: 5591-57-38-93.
You can report any
abuses to them.
7 Mexican auto insurance contract.
my wife and me back in, but
not the car.
I consulted Roberto Torres,
the excellent immigration
lawyer at the law firm Solorzano, Carvajal, González
and Perez Correa. A couple
of days later, he sent me an email that began: “Even when
the [car] permit has an expiration date…the lifetime
of the permit is understood
to extend for the entire time
that the importer keeps his
migratory status up-to-date.”
In other words, as long as
we were legal and our visas
had not expired, the car was
legal! (I was able to corroborate this revelation at only
one website, www.rollybrook.
com, a site created by Mr.
Rollins Brook. It’s well worth
a visit to Mr. Brook’s site to
review the ins-and-outs of
a variety of topics related
to setting up a legal life in
México as a foreigner.)
We did have to fly out of
and back into México to renew our FM-Ts. (If we had
left by car, it’s true that the
car wouldn’t have been allowed back into the country
for six months.) Also, to help
explain the lapsed permit on
our windshield to any inquiring Mexican policemen, we
made sure to carry a copy of
the law that Mr. Torres had
quoted in our glove compartment (see box).
“Your car’s status depends
on yours. The nine-month
visa you received with your
Fulbright takes precedence
over the six month sticker
the authorities put on your
car at the border,” I told Alex
with newfound authority.
Conveniently for us (although this didn’t apply to
Alex’s situation), when my
wife and I crossed the border
we guaranteed the car importation bond with a credit card.
This meant that once we received our FM-3 visas, we did
not have to advise Mexican customs of the change in status. If
we had paid the bond in cash,
we would have been required
to let customs know about our
new visa status within 15 days,
thereby adding one more step
to staying legal. “By the way,” I asked Alex,
“are you going to be driving
through México City? There
will be days when you are not
allowed to drive your car.”
“What?!”
“It all depends on the last
digit of your license plate
number. One Thursday afternoon, we had a little chat with
every policeman on duty as we
drove down Insurgentes…. ”
Good luck and safe driving.
Next Month
The secret to driving 7
days a week in the D.F.
November •2006
HSBC BUILDING
Embassy Listings
Australian Embassy
Ambassador: Neil Mules
Ruben Dario 55
Colonia Polanco
Telephone: 1101-2200
Fax: 1101-2201
Website: www.mexico.
embassy.gov.au
Email:embaustmex@
yahoo.com.mx
British Embassy
Ambassador: Giles Paxman
Río Lerma 71
Colonia Cuauhtémoc
Website: www.britishembassy.gov.uk/mexico
Consular Section
Consul: Andrew Morris
Río Usumacinta 26
Colonia Cuauhtémoc
Fax: 5242-8523
Email: consular.mexico@
fco.gov.uk
Canadian Embassy
Ambassador: Gaëtan
Lavertu
Schiller 529
Colonia Polanco
Website:www.dfaitmaeci.gc.ca/mexico-city
Consular Section
ext. 3322 Fax: 5724-7943
Passport Section Fax: 5387-9305
French Embassy
Ambassador: Alain Le
Gourriérec
Campos Elíseos 339
Colonia Polanco
Fax: 9171-9703
Website:www.ambafrance-mx.org
Consulate General
Consul: Didier Goujaud
Lafontaine 32
Colonia Polanco
Fax: 9171-9858
Website:www.consulNovember •2006
france-mexico.org
Email: consulat.mexicofslt@diplomatie.gouv.fr
Irish Embassy
Ambassador: Dermot
Brangan
Cda. Boulevard Avila
Camacho 76-3
Colonia Lomas de
Chapultepec
Fax: 5520-5892
Website:http://foreignaffairs.gov.ie/irishembassy/Mexico.htm
Email: embajada@
irlanda.org.mx
German Embassy
Ambassador: Dr. Roland
Michael Wegener
Lord Byron 737
Colonia Polanco
Fax: 5281-2588
Website: www.mexiko.
diplo.de
Japanese Embassy
Ambassador: Yubun
Narita
Paseo de la Reforma
395
Colonia Cuauhtémoc
Telephone: 5211-0028,
5514-4507
Website: www.mx.embjapan.go.jp/
New Zealand Embassy
Ambassador: George
Robert Furness Troup
Jaime Balmes 8, 4th
Floor
Colonia Los Morales,
Polanco 11510 D.F.,
Fax: 5283-9480
Email: kiwimexico@
prodigy.net.mx
United States Embassy
Ambassador: Tony Garza
Paseo de la Reforma
305
Colonia Cuauhtémoc
Telephone: 5080-2000 Fax: 5525-5040
Website: http://mexico.
usembassy.gov/index.
html
Email: ccs@usembassy.
net.mx (Citizens Consular Services)
Luz Montero
All phone numbers
are local to México City.
Country code: 52
City area code: 55
The Green Giant
W
By Jamie Rosen
ith its new 32-story tower, located at
the Angel of Independence on México
City’s main avenue Paseo de la Reforma,
HSBC has created the first green office building
in México. The bank spent an additional $3 million on the Torre HSBC in order to comply with
green building practices, according to Claudio
Tanco, HSBC’s Head of Corporate Real Estate.
Although the company pays a flat fee for
water and doesn’t save money by reducing
consumption, it nevertheless put in place a
treatment plant to capture rainwater and drainage from bathroom sinks for reuse in its air
conditioners. They even considered a system for
treating sewage. “It would have been easy to do,”
said Bernardo Barona, an HSBC architect. “We
decided against it because it would have been
too smelly. Bad for customer service.”
Tanco is optimistic that his will be the first
office building in Latin America to receive the
certification of the U.S. Green Building Council.
Known as LEED, the certification covers not just
the building but also the behavior of the 2,200
employees who use it, which has led to HSBC
introducing changes in the work environment.
Some have been straightforward, such as using stylish, comfortable chairs made of recycled
(and recyclable) materials. Others take more time
to get used to, such as waterless urinals and motion sensors that turn off the lights in the conference rooms (requiring people to periodically flap
their arms to remind the room’s sensors that
someone’s inside).
The general reaction among employees has
been one of cooperation and pride. The building’s
180 parking spots reserved for carpoolers (defined
as three people per vehicle) are always full.
And yet the contrast of having a green building
in a city noted for a lack of environmental consciousness is apparent, as in the garage where a
single bike was locked up in an area designed for
hundreds. Asked about this, Mr. Tanco smiles.
“A little at a time.”
a treatment plant to capture rainwater and
drainage from bathroom sinks for reuse in its air
conditioners.
Will be the first office building in Latin
America to receive the certification of the U.S.
Green Building Council.
The building has motion sensors that turn off
lights in conference rooms
The apartment’s
stunning stairway is a perfect showcase for Morales’
photography.
Décor in the bedroom is a
mix of the traditional and the
modern.
Light peeks into this kitchen
nook.
A bathroom the size of a
bedroom is airy without being
austere.
Every room in the house
reflects Morales’ warm and
eclectic personality.
Inside México Talks
rowena morales
Restoring a gem
With
An Urban Oasis in Colonia
Juárez
Photography By Luz Montero
inside méxico: What do you
do?
rowena morales: I’m a jew-
elry designer and part of Colectivo 7, a group of designers
with a store in La Condesa.
I’ve been working with jewelry since the 1970s, when I
studied at the Central Saint
Martin’s College of Art and
Design.
im: How long have you lived
in this apartment?
rm: I’ve lived here for 7 years.
I was looking for an apartment to buy, and a friend
came along with me to look
at this place. It was in total
ruins! My friend thought I
was crazy, but I fell in love
with the apartment’s lovely
original details. I could see
what a special place it was.
The floors were covered
with this fake-marble linoleum. The walls were all
stucco. The door hinges were
covered with layers of paint,
but I took the doors off and
cleaned them and they were
marvelous. I opened the closet and found that underneath
the linoleum were wood floors
and gorgeous tiles. The apartment was in a horrible state
but the details were all original. Nowadays, people don’t
appreciate these things, they
don’t take care of them.
im: How long did it take you
to renovate?
rm: 8 months. I did a lot of
the work myself! I’d be down
in my studio working, and the
guys renovating the house
would be up here. I’d come
up and see what they were
doing, then take the tools myself and say, do it like this,
do it this way. I did so much
with my own hands. I worked
side by side with them.
It was like jewelry…jewelry is construction, it’s architectural, the techniques
I’d learned in jewelry making
applied for construction as
well. You have to have a logic about it as you work, you
have to be very methodical.
im :How long do you think
you’ll live here?
rm: Well, I’ve been spending
a lot of time in Valle de Bravo
lately. I’m thinking of opening
a store there, the change and
Rowena Morales and her dog Pepa in their Colonia
Juárez home.
the quiet are good for me. I’m
actually looking for someone to
rent the apartment now, but
I’m in no rush, I want to find
the right person.
im: Why is this building called
Buen Tono?
rm: These apartments were
built in the early 20th century by a man named Ernes-
to Pugibet, a very wealthy
businessman who owned a
cigar company called Buen
Tono. The three Buen Tono
buildings, Ideal, Mascota and
Gardenia were named for the
three different brands of cigars the company sold.
There was a lady who used
to live here, she was in her
90s and died 3 or 4 years ago.
Her parents came to live here
as newlyweds. She said that
at that time, Buen Tono was
the pinnacle of modernity, it
was one of first really luxurious buildings where you
could rent, not buy. They
had a team of carpenters and
handymen keeping the place
in top shape.
im: What’s your favorite room
in the house?
rm : The studio. I spend so
much time working that having a comfortable space is important. The light is wonderful. You can hear the birds
singing and the children
playing downstairs.
Here, we’re right in the
middle of the city. There’s so
much traffic and noise and
all the people, it’s so urban.
Then you come inside and
it’s quiet, and there’s a real
sense of peace. It’s incredible
to have those two things so
close together. ❚
November •2006
Call now: 50 25 87 46 • Email: classifieds@insidemex.com
Newin
Town?
SOLCARGO:
Taking legal
representation
in México
to a higher level
Solorzano, Carvajal, González y
Pérez-Correa “SOLCARGO” is a
highly respected and well connected Mexican law firm with offices in
México City and Los Cabos.
Solcargo is a comprehensive law
firm that can service all of our clients personal and business needs
The firm is divided into the following main practice areas:
FREE classified in our next issue.
Limited time only!
November • 2006
w w w.s ol c a rg o . c o m. m x
to place a
Carretera Transpeninsular
Kilometro 4.5 Local “C”
Fracc. El Tezal
23410, Cabo San Lucas
Los Cabos, Baja California Sur
T.+52 (624) 1043503
F.+52 (624) 1043506
luis.gonzalez@solcargo.com.mx
Email us: at classifieds@insidemex.com
Contact:
We can help.
Torre Mural
Av. Insurgentes Sur 1605
Piso 12, suite 3
San José Insurgentes
México D.F. 03900
T.+52(55) 50620050
F.+52(55) 50620051
Luis Fernando González Nieves
• Corporate, Foreign Investment &
Finance
• Immigration
• Intellectual Property-Entertainment
Law
• Litigation & Dispute Resolution,
Bankruptcy
• Real Estate, Resort & Hospitality
• Enviromental & Land Use
• Tax & Administrative Law

México - Margot Lee Shetterly

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