REFORMA Mexico`s Main Street

Transcription

R E F O R M A
Mexico's Main Street
MR
THE ENGLISH SPEAKER’S GUIDE TO LIVING IN MEXICO
JULY 2007
J A P A N
I N
M E X I C O
I S S U E
www.insidemex.com
THE HISTORY OF THE
JAPANESE MIGRATION
TO MEXICO
A CONVERSATION WITH CARLOS
KASUGA OSAKA >7
A YOUNG VOLUNTEER TAKES TO
THE STREETS>9
LIFE AND ART IN OAXACA>10
SUNTORY: A MEXICAN CULINARY INSTITUTION>21
East
to the
Americas
CECI CONNOLLY on Fox's Library // Jimm Budd: The Rise and Fall of The News
IMx08Cover.indd 1
6/27/07 11:03:48 PM
Rumbo a...
SAN LUIS POTOSÍ
8
IN THIS COLONIAL MINING TOWN,
Aran Shetterly discovers electric
twilight, historic homes and tacos rojos
24
Health
Milk got
your
tummy
down?
4 INBOX
EDITOR’S LETTER
Celebrating 110 years of
Japanese migration to Mexico
5 INVOICES
CECI CONNOLLY
President Fox’s Library
GLIMPSES
6-7 NEWS&NOTES
TIMESTAMP
PERSPECTIVE
Carlos Kasuga Osaka
on Mexico and Japan
8-11 INSIDEOUT
STEALS & DEALS
CLOSEUP
14-19
Javier Marín and
Frida’s big show
Luz Montero.
Lacquered chopsticks
and more
Víctor Solís
12-13 ARTS&CULTURE
El Sensei
25-26 Real Estat e
CLOSEUP The housesitter’s home is your home
30 FAREWELLS
Shari Rettig: 1941 - 2007
31 THE BACK PAGE
Putting out The News, Part II
COVER
A Beautiful Mix
EAST TO AMERICA
DURING WORLD WAR II, THEY WERE ROUNDED
UP THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY AND SENT
TO LIVE IN MEXICO CITY AND GUADALAJARA.
NOW, JAPANESE-MEXICAN NIKKEI DISCUSS
ASSIMILATION, INVISIBILITY AND ANCESTRY.
NUMBER 8 • JULY 2007 •
CEO
editor@insidemex.com
P RESIDENT
Catherine Dunn
R EPORTER /P RODUCER
Luz Montero
S TAFF P HOTOGRAPHER
Levi Bridges
INTERN
EDITORIAL
CONTRIBUTORS
David Agren
Emilio Betech R.
Jimm Budd
Carlo Cibo
Ceci Connolly
Georgina del Ángel Cabrera
Caroline Goldman
Mario González-Román
Tara FitzGerald
Maquillaje: Rosario González MAKE UP
ARTIST de LANCÔME
www.insidemex.com • +52 55 5574 4281 • editor@insidemex.com
Aran Shetterly
Margot Lee Shetterly
Akemi Tsuru Ocaña, of mixed JapaneseMexican parentage, was born and raised in
Mexico City. She admits that she struggled
with “never feeling fully from here or there”
as a child. Though she more closely identifies
with her Mexican heritage on her mother’s
side, she embraces both cultures.
Askari Mateos
Federico Monsalve
Lorraine Orlandi
Vivienne Stanton
ART AND
PHOTOGRAPHY
CONTRIBUTOR
Victor Solis
DESIGN
Alejandro Zárate
Daniela Graniel
Aline Jáuregui
Publicaciones a Medida SA
de CV, 2454 4666
BUSINESS
DEVELOPMENT
Maya Harris
ADVERTISING
sales@insidemex.com
Alejandro Xolalpa,
Commercial Director
Carlos Xolalpa, Sales
Griselda Juárez, Sales
PR
pr@insidemex.com
John Boit, Melwood Global,
US
EDITOR RESPONSABLE
Jessica Budd
WEB DEVELOPMENT
Alberto Correu
LEGAL COUNSEL
Luis Fernando González
Nieves for Solorzano,
Carvajal, González, PérezCorrea S.C.
Distribution: 50,000
(paper and online)
Printed by SPI: Servicios Profesionales de
Impresión, S.A. de C.V.
Distributed by Servicios de Mensajeria al
Detalle
Derechos reservados © Editorial Manda S.A.
de C.V., Cordoba 206A #4, Colonia Roma,
C.P. 06700, México D.F., México 2007. Se
prohíbe la reproducción, total o parcial, del
contenido de esta publicación, así como
también se prohíbe cualquier utilización
pública del contenido, como por ejemplo,
actos de distribución, transformación y comunicación pública (incluyendo la transmisión pública). Certificado de reservas al uso
exclusivo del título: 04-2006-111512075500102. Certificado de licitud de título: 13674.
Certificado de licitud de contenido: 11247
Los artículos aquí contenidos reflejan únicamente la postura de su respectivo autor, y no
necesariamente la de Editorial Manda S.A. de
C.V., por lo que dicha empresa no se responsabiliza por lo afirmado por los respectivos
autores aquí publicados.
20
Taste
Suntory’s Head
Chef on classic
sushi and the cream
cheese migration
THE GUIDE
reforma:
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6/27/07 9:09:37 PM
From Japanese Parts,
Made in Mexico
T
he United States and Canada
are proud of their traditions
of opening their doors to immigrants from around the world: French
and Africans, Koreans and Turks, Irish and
Indians, all lending their faces, voices and customs to a new national identity. As people accustomed to thinking of Mexicans as emigrants
in search of opportunity, it’s often difficult for
estadounidenses and canadienses (despite the
fact that we move here!) to see that Mexico
is and has been a destination for people from
other countries seeking a new life.
Such was my surprise one day when, going through the checkout line in Mikasa, the
Colonia Roma-based Japanese supermarket, I
struck up a conversation with a friendly young
employee. As Magra scanned my hijiki and
rang up my tempura, she told me with pride
of her grandparents’ migration to Mexico, and
also of the difficulties that Japanese Mexicans
endured here during World War II. I knew
that there were large Japanese migrations
to Peru and Brazil but had never heard this
story and was immediately fascinated, eager
to know more about this seemingly arcane bit
of Mexican history.
And so, in a year in which the Japanese community is celebrating the 110th anniversary of
its first migration to Mexico, Inside México
takes a look at the history and culture of this
small but dynamic group of immigrants.
In our cover article, “East to the Americas”, Lorraine Orlandi takes us to Acacoyagua,
Chiapas, the site of the original migration,
and talks with Mexicans of Japanese heritage
about their stories and identity. “It was an
eye-opener to learn about the immigration of
one particular group to Mexico, albeit small,”
she says “And according to all accounts, the
Japanese, who seemed so different culturally,
were warmly received here.”
I had the good fortune to interview Carlos
Kasuga Osaka, the Director General of Yakult,
S.A. de C.V. His company makes the ubiquitous
Yakult probiotic drink, a product designed to
promote a healthy digestive system, originally
brought from Japan to Mexico 25 years ago by
Mr. Kasuga. One of Mexico’s most successful
entrepreneurs, Mr. Kasuga’s appreciation for
the patria of his parents and his passion for
the land of his birth have combined to form a
unique philosophy of life and work, which he
shares in motivational speeches throughout
Mexico and Latin America.
We also spend time with a young Japanese
volunteer who works with street children
in Mexico City, a Japanese artist based in
Oaxaca, and the chef of the Japanese restaurant Suntory, which after nearly 40 years of
operation, is a Mexican culinary institution.
All share their perspectives on the intersection of Japanese and Mexican cultures, and
how elements of both shape their work and
world view.
We would like to thank the Japanese Mexican intercultural magazine Zetten (www.
coralate.net), the Asociación México Japonesa
(www.kaikan.com.mx), the Cámara Japonesa de Comercio e Industria de México (www.
japon.org.mx) the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (www.jica.go.jp), the Japanese Embassy (www.mx.emb-japan.go.jp) and
the city of Acacoyagua, Chiapas for all of their
help on this issue. We learned so much through
the research and writing, and have taken away
from it yet another perspective on the richness
and complexity of the mole that is Mexico.
Enjoy!
Margot Lee Shetterly
[ ] InsideMéxico July 2007
pag. 2 y 4 .indd 4
6/27/07 12:39:26 AM
letters@insidemex.com
For the record
BY
Ceci Connolly
Vicente Fox’s presidential library controversy
At a recent dinner party in Mexico City,
the conversation turned to Vicente Fox’s
first-in-the-nation presidential library,
under construction in the tiny ranching
town of San Cristobal.
“It’s an embarrassment,” growled one local entrepreneur who voted for Fox in 2000.
Don’t even get people started on Marta
Sahagun, Fox’s super-coifed, super-controversial second wife. Now she’s got hubby
dreaming of a Clintonesque post-presidency, complete with high-paid speeches and
a mammoth shrine in his hometown.
(“Yes,” Senora Fox told me at a luncheon
for the international press, she did suggest
using the Clinton library as a model.)
It seems Mexico’s intelligentsia is
miffed that Fox is thumbing his nose at
the tradition of ex-presidentes quietly fading from view. Reforma snarkily dubbed
the library and education center, “Foxilandia.” The punditocracy snarled about
a man who fell short of delivering on his
campaign promises erecting a monument
to himself.
I don’t get it. An educational center
with some 4 million presidential documents, offering the opportunity to study
the inner workings of government is cause
for ridicule?
Historians are right to dissect the Fox
legacy: He never got his compadre, George
W. Bush, to sign an immigration accord.
Mexico’s growth rate never came close
to the promised 7 percent. Last year, he
meddled in the presidential campaign and
allowed protests in Oaxaca to turn into
deadly riots.
But pooh-poohing the library seems
a curious contradiction. In the United
States, researchers have for decades
mined historical treasure troves at presidential libraries.
“[The US’s] is really the only system in
the world where it is required by law that
the entire record of an administration be
preserved, assembled in one place and
over time be made available,” said Richard
Norton Smith, a presidential historian at
George Mason University.
A tradition that began with President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt has now grown
to a system of 11 presidential libraries
(soon to be 12 with the addition of the Nixon collection) that are run by the National
Archives. They are stocked with speeches,
diaries, film clips, personal mementos,
oral histories, declassified materials, fur-
nishings and photos.
The Truman library in Independence,
Missouri contains documents on the decision to drop the atomic bomb, desegregation of the Armed Forces and the Nuremberg war crimes trials. When I went to the
Carter museum in Atlanta, I lingered over
the transcripts from the 1978 Camp David Accords between Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin.
FDR’s Hyde Park library candidly acknowledges that the president hid his
crippling polio from the public and that
he wrote love letters to a secretary named
Lucy Mercer. And of course, there are the
tapes--Nixon’s library will include Watergate conversations, while recordings of
LBJ’s verbal arm-twisting have provided
me endless hours of listening pleasure.
Each library reflects not only the official record, but the human side. At the
Kennedy library, I felt uplifted by the airy,
sparkling edifice that evokes youthful
energy and optimism. Texan LBJ’s is the
biggest. Chatty Clinton’s—no surprise—is
the most voluminous with close to 80 million pages and 1.8 million photographs.
Sure, some try to gloss over the nasty
stuff. Watergate. Iran-Contra. Slavery.
But type “impeachment” into the Clinton
library website and 436 items pop up.
President Johnson adamantly insisted the archivists find the “most hateful,
vicious” mail he had received to ensure
there wouldn’t be a “credibility gap” in
his library. When it came time to stock
the Ford library, Henry Kissinger “was
aghast” at plans to display the U.S. embassy staircase that diplomats used to
escape Vietnam during the fall of Saigon,
Smith told me. But Ford “saw it as a symbol of the desire for freedom.”
Fox, who sent a plush bus to Mexico
City to drive journalists the five hours
north to his ranch, is making big promises
about the center he’s building on family
land. It will feature a replica of his presidential office, educational conferences,
exhibits on Mayan history and the “arrival
of democracy” ushered in by his remarkable election.
“This center will have the mission of
defending and promoting liberty and democracy for Mexico and Latin America,”
he boasted as we slurped tequila at his
grand hacienda.
It’s possible Fox will once again fall
short of his promises. But if he does deliver, Smith says the cowboy-turned-sodamogul “will have struck a post-presidential blow for democracy.”
Ceci Connolly is a reformed political reporter,
on a leave of absence from the Washington Post.
Víctor Solís
“Don’t mind me, but I think I just discovered the gene
that causes hair loss.”
Inside México Listens In
“It’s funny because I’ve never been surrounded by so many people, so many cameras. Japanese people never cared about
beauty pageants before…. I think I have a
samurai soul. I’m very patient, and I can serve
others.”2007 Miss Universe Riyo Mori on winning.
“They deserve to
the No. 1 team in
CONCACAF. They
played well... We
just didn‘t take advantage of our opportunities.” Mexican
striker Cuauhtemoc
Blanco on losing the
Copa de Oro to the US
Soccer team June 24.
“It’s just huge, absolutely
incredible. We believe this
tunnel is, in fact, the largest tunnel ever found on the
south-west border. Our quick
assumption is it’s the drug
cartels. When we find these
tunnels, we see that as a vulnerability to our national security, whether the tunnel was
used to smuggle aliens…or in
a worst-case scenario, some
sort of weapon that would
be smuggled in and directed
at the United States,” Michael
Unzueta, a US immigration and
customs special agent based in San
Diego, California, on the discovery
of a tunnel that runs from Tijuana
into California, is 2,400 feet long
and 85 feet below the surface.
Express yourself: letters@insidemex.com
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6/26/07 9:26:10 PM
Domino Effect
We pAGe throuGh StAff photoGrApher luZ montero’S portfolio.
Jobs@insidemex.com
Bi-lingual (Spanish-English) ad sales professionals
Bi-lingual (English-Spanish) radio producer
Copy Editor (English)
Freelance writers
Interns: Design, Marketing, Editorial
e-mail: jobs@insidemex.com
On a rainy afternoon in winter 2005, Luz and her
model Mayanín Ángeles were driving on a Hidalgo
carretera, returning to Mexico City after a photo
shoot in a graveyard. They spied the saddled pony
on the side of the road and stopped to take the last
picture of the day. Luz was using black and white TriX pan film and a Nikon N-100 35 mm camera. Rain
drops splattered the lens and the Volkswagen passed
by just in time for her to capture the surreal proportions: the Bug, the pony and the model-bride.
[ 6 ] InsIdeMéxIco July 2007
6/26/07 9:26:26 PM
INSIDE MEXICO TALKS WITH
Carlos Kasuga Osaka
I am 60% Japanese
and 60% Mexican
method of sales will never work in
Mexico. But they said, we’re celebrating
the 10th anniversary of Yakult in
Brazil. So I decided to give it a try.
Before we launched, my business
partners and I did a market study.
We needed to know what people really
ate, not just what they said they ate.
For three months, we got up at 4 AM
and gathered trash in Mexico City
and around the country. We spread
out the contents to examine them. We
knew if people drank milk or didn’t, if
they ate meat, and how they cleaned
their vegetables.
When we examined the vegetable
peelings with a microscope, we found
lots of bacteria because they hadn’t
been washed properly. This, among
other things, told us there were
dietary problems in Mexico, and
because of this, Yakult would be a
success.
T he f i r st ye a r we s old 2 , 5 6 8
containers of Yakult every day. Now
we sell three million.
IM: When was the first time you went
to Japan?
CK: In 1959. My father sent me to
learn how to read and write Japanese.
While I was there, I attended the first
International Machine Fair in Tokyo.
One company made plastic beach toys
and lifesavers. I had been on the school
swim team, and I’d never seen anything
like that in Mexico! I said to the owner
of the company, I’d like to bring these
to Mexico. He consulted a book of trade
laws, and said, I’m sorry, but these
items are prohibited for import into
Mexico. Why don’t you buy the machine
and make them there?
W
ith complimentary economies
and 400 years of cultural exchange, bilateral
relations between Japan
and Mexico have never
been better.
7th Japan’s foreign investor
Carlos Kasuga Osaka is Director general of
Yakult, S.A. de C.V. He is Founder and President
of the Japanese Mexican School, Founder and Past
President of the Panamerican Nikkei Association,
and Past President of the Asociación México
Japonesa. His parents migrated to Mexico from
Japan in 1930.
INSIDE MEXICO: What was it like
for Japanese people in Mexico during
World War II?
CARLOS KASUGA: [US president]
R oosevelt asked the Mex ican
government to send the Japanese here
to concentration camps in Texas. The
Mexican government refused to do this,
but did agree to move Japanese from
around the country to Mexico City.
W hen the order came for us to
relocate, my family was living in
Cardenas, San Luis Potosí. We were
given 72 hours to leave for Mexico
City. Two soldiers came to our house
to escort us and another Japanese
family to the train station. The entire
town came to see us off. It was 1942
or 43. I was seven years old.
In spite of the suffering, I have
to give some thanks to the Mexican
g o v e r n m e n t . We h a d t h e b e s t
concentration camp in the world! In
Mexico City, we had access to schools
and the chance to get an education.
IM: How did you start Yakult?
CK: When I was founding the Liceo
Mexicano Japonés, I traveled back and
forth to Japan, looking for support.
[Mexican president] Luis Echevarria
had given me letters of introduction
to the Japanese government. I met a
congressional representative, and I
told him about the problems we had
in Mexico, including unemployment
and intestinal problems caused by the
water. He said, you should bring Yakult
to Mexico.
In Japan, women sold Yakult door
to door. People left money in their
mailboxes, and the ladies came by and
left the Yakult. I said to them, this
Pacific
Exchange
rank in Mexico.
1888 Treaty of Amity,
Commerce and Navigation
signed between Mexico
and Japan.
1952 Octavio Paz travels
to Japan to reestablish the
Mexican Embassy.
I said, what will I do if the machine
breaks down in Mexico? He said, don’t
worry, we’ll teach you how to fix it.
Every week I sent my father a letter
in Japanese, so he could see how my
language study was coming along. I told
him about the machine and my idea for
the business. Soon after, someone from
the company came to see me. My father
had sent a letter to the owner, saying
that my Japanese was good enough
and I was to report directly to work at
the factory.
For me—a Latino!—going to work at
a Japanese company was really difficult!
All the hierarchy, having to arrive early,
sweep the factory, wear a uniform—this
was culture shock! But it was one of the
most important experiences of my life:
I learned the importance of discipline,
order and cleanliness. The owners of
the company were the first to arrive
and the last to leave. Everyone used
the same bathroom. If the owner of a
company has a clean bathroom, and the
one for the workers is disgusting, you
breed resentment and hatred among
the workers.
I eventually bought two machines
and brought them back to Mexico to
start my business making lifesavers
here in Mexico. I have brought three
things from Japan for chi ld ren:
inflatable beach toys for fun, the Liceo
Mexicano Japonés for education, and
Yakult for health.
I M : A r e y o u m o r e Ja p a n e s e o r
Mexican?
CK: I am 60% Japanese and 60%
Mexican [laughs].
Carlos Kasuga Osaka has run Yakult Mexico for more than 20 years. He graduated in accounting from the Escuela Bancaria Comercia
in Mexico City. In addition his many other activities, he is President of the International Life Sciences Institute, and Vice President of the Committee for the Centennial Celebration of the Japanese Migration to Mexico. He has traveled all of Mexico, to Peru and to Columbia speaking about his
philosophy, based on Japanese-style Total Quality and Productivity.
1977 Opening of the Ja-
pan-Mexico Lyceum. Plan
got a boost when Prime
Minister Kakuei Tanaka
visited Mexico in 1974.
2004 Mexico-Japan
Agreement for Strengthening of the Economic
partnership signed.
4,100 Japanese nationals
residing in Mexico (1999).
15,650 Population of
Japanese descendants living in Mexico (1999).
109,000 Approximate
number of Japanese tourists to visit Mexico in 2007.
27.81% Growth in trade
between Japan and Mexico
inform 2005 to 2006.
10.56% Increase in
Mexican exports to Japan
in 2006.
60.9% Of Mexican
exports to Japan are manufactured products.
$85,112,000 USD
Of fresh fish sold to Japan
from Mexico (2005).
$176,329,000
USD Of pork sold to
Japan from Mexico (2005).
34.14% Increase in
Japanese exports to Mexico
in 2006.
95.3% Of Japanese
exports to Mexico are
manufactured products.
Sources: Jetro Mexico (Japan External Trade
Organization), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of
Japan, SICE: Foreign Trade Information System,
jetcommunity.com.
www.insidemex.com [ 7 ]
6/26/07 9:26:29 PM
San Luis Potosí
soon to boom again
Doña Juanita’s tacos have been an institution for 48 years.
by A ran S hetterly
photos by San Luis Potosí Dept. of Tourism
J
The Church in Matehuala: Several smaller towns are an easy drive from SLP.
How to get there
San Luis Potosí’s colonial center
is built around seven plazas.
By car: Take Route 57 north.
By bus: ETN, 5hrs. from Mexico
Norte Station. $ 385.
By air: Aeromar. 1 hour 15 minute flight
from Mexico City. $ 250-300 RT.
ust before the street lamps come on in the Jardin de Tequis, about a ten minute walk west
along Venustiano Carranza from San Luis
Potosí’s city center, the sky is a deep, electric
blue. It’s an unusual color, visceral, as if you
were a whale peering from the depths, toward the surface
of a shimmering sea. Then the yellow lights twinkle on,
and the color of the sky deepens, but holds the twilight
for what seems an impossibly long moment. Grackles
squeak and alarm from the trees in the park. Teenagers
skateboard. Young parents push strollers.
Along the north side of the park there’s some bustle
where Doña Juanita and her family are slapping together
tacos rojos. The matriarch’s been at it for 48 years. Red
because there’s a touch of chili in the masa, with a bit of
queso fresco rolled into a tortilla dipped in hot oil, topped
off with fried carrots and potatoes, shredded lettuce, and
more cheese.
This little park sits out beyond the impressive colonial
center, but it’s a point of convergence for potosinos. San
Luis Potosí is one those cities that’s deceptively large. It
still feels like a collection of neighbors, even though it
claims a million-plus population.
An SUV stops and two women in their 50s step out to
order. How long have you been coming for these tacos?
One laughs and drops her hand to her waist, palm down.
[ ] InsideMéxico July 2007
6/26/07 9:26:39 PM
Since she was a little girl. A young man rolls up with his
novia in a silver VW bug that looks like a crumpled ball
of aluminum foil, gets his tacos, asks me if I want to see
the jewelry he makes. A day laborer ambles by, inquiring. Might Doña Juanita have any chores for him? He
munches one of her quesadillas.
Doña Juanita’s a tough, wiry great-grandmother, who
skips along so fast with her cane that her grandkids hustle
to keep up. Business, she says, is better than ever. She’s
selling more tacos at higher prices and she’s got more than
enough help; the night I’m there a daughter, a daughterin-law, and a granddaughter are working for her.
My family loves the business too, she says.
All the potosinos I met noted that San Luis Potosí
is safe. I felt completely comfortable walking between
the city’s seven plazas late at night, admiring Latin
America’s first master lighting plan, designed by Mexican architects Gustavo Aviles and Maria Pinto-Coelho to
“project unexpected geometries and shadows on streets,
plazas and buildings, [and to] create narrative sensations
of space and time.”
Perhaps, big city folks will find the absence of belowthe-surface crackle boring. But San Luis Potosí is a
livable place with good infrastructure, one of the best
hospitals in the region, and, with students from the Universidad Autonoma de San Luis Potosí everywhere you
turn, the energy of a university town.
It was founded as a boomtown in 1592. The Spanish
discovered gold in the nearby Cerros de San Pedro. The
wealth that poured out of those gold and silver mines is
evident in the mansions at the city center and street after
street of well-preserved colonial houses. In fact, San Luis
Potosí’s next goldmine may well be these buildings. At least
one is being turned into an impeccable boutique hotel.
Located in the north-central part of the country less
than two hours from San Miguel de Allende, few tourists stop in San Luis Potosí. Why, you might wonder, is
San Luis Potosí, with more colonial buildings than any
Mexican city save the DF and Puebla, off the track for
traveling foreigners and Mexicans, whereas San Miguel
is virtually synonymous with Americans living in Mexico? Surely it has to do, at least in part, with the whimsy
of history that built a storied expat tradition in one place
and not in another.
The lack of attention shows in the rental market: A
quick check of the classifieds puts well located 2-3 bedroom apartments at $180-500 USD per month.
They’ve got a shiny little airport where you can’t get
lost and direct flights to San Antonio. As more tourists
and expats arrive -- as they are bound to do -- it will be
interesting to see if potosinos continue to reimagine their
present by including their past: Doña Juanita’s tacos, the
colonial architecture, and an easy neighborliness. z
Where to stay
Where to eat
Panorama Hotel
Amazing views from
the top floors.
$50-80 USD.
Rincon de la Huasteca
Excellent traditional food
from state’s eastern lowlands. $
Hotel Filher
SLP’s oldest. A good
traveler’s hotel.
$45 USD for a double.
Restaurante 1913
Solid Mexican fare with
local touches in lovely
space. $$
Westin SLP
Fancy hotel, outside the
center. $250 USD and up.
Doña Juanita’s tacos
Cheap, tasty, filling
street food. ¢
Tsukasa Takahashi
El Sensei
by Margot Lee Shetterly/Photo Luz Montero
Tsukasa (pronounced su casa) Takahashi is
dressed international b-boy style: he sports an
oversized t-shirt and long baggy shorts, and a
color bandana printed with Japanese characters
peeks out from under his baseball cap. He is only
24 years old but commands respect in the lively
breakfast room of Fundacion Pro Niños de la
Calle, a non profit dedicated to sheltering Mexico
City street kids.
18 months ago, Tsukasa left his comfortable
life in Fukushima (a city north of Tokyo) to
volunteer overseas with JICA, the Japanese
International Cooperation Agency, similar to
the Peace Corps in the US. He was hoping to be
placed in Africa, and was surprised when he was
assigned to Mexico.
“All I knew about Mexico was [soccer],
tequila, mariachis and cactus. I didn’t know
Mexico was a country that had such extreme
poverty, that the gap between rich and poor was
so wide”, he says.
He arrived with little Spanish and immediately
plunged into the difficult work of walking the
around the DF, seeking out the children who
live on the streets —their lives marred by drugs,
violence and abandonment— and convincing
them to step toward a better life through Pro
Niños. The foundation tries to return kids to
school and reunite them with their families, and
gives then a safe place where they can eat and
bathe during the day.
“It’s very hard. Sometimes they’re like, ‘What
do you know about me, about my life?’ In the
beginning I wanted to be as Mexican as possible, to
try to gain their confidence. Eventually I realized that
I’m Japanese, and that won’t change. But they’ve
accepted me, and I have a lot of friends here.”
Now, Tsukasa’s rapid fire chatter is spliced
with the chilango slang of his charges. He’s taught
them origami, and how to write their names in
Japanese. They call him Tsukasa sensei (teacher).
In December, when his two year stint is up,
Tsukasa plans to return to Japan, to work in the
kindergarten founded by his grandfather, and
currently run by his father. “I’m the oldest son,
and in Japan the tradition is that the oldest son
has to follow in the father’s footprints. I guess
I could just leave, but…” his voice trails off, the
pause indicating the complications created by
pushing against such strong customs.
He says he’ll carry Mexico and his work with
Pro Niños back with him, though he’s puzzling
through exactly how to keep the link alive, and is
aware of the challenges posed by distance.
“When I go back, I could forget; the chavos
won’t be in front of me then. I could just think
of my things, and my life.” Still, the passion he
evinces for the work shows no sign of burning
out, and he says that helping those in need will
always be a part of his life.
“Each of us has a little bit of power,” he says,
“but together we can do lots.”
For more information on Pro Ninos, go to www.
proninosdelacalle.org.mx or call (55) 5782-0619. z
www.insidemex.com [ ]
6/26/07 8:54:18 PM
The Art
of Living
Japanese artist
Akiko Miyashita
makes art, a life and
a home in Oaxaca
A
A
e
(a
by A skari M ateos / photo by A skari M ateos
kiko Miyashita has lived in
Oaxaca since 1991. Besides removing her shoes when entering the house Akiko preserves
many other Japanese traditions,
such as eating foods like green tea, rice, and
wasabi, and valuing responsibility, respect,
hard work, and contact with the water; she
washes her hands and face a few times a day.
“Japanese people like water so much. My
father used to say that Japan is the rainiest
country in the world because it’s a volcanic
island. But for reasons of climate change I am
not sure about that anymore,” she says.
Akiko was born in Gifu, located in the
south-central portion of the island. She
studied art in Nagoya and her last five years
in Japan were dedicated to improving her
graphic abilities.
“One day I met [Japanese print maker]
Shinzaburo Takeda, when he had an exhibition in Nagoya. He told me I should go to
Oaxaca, where he was living and teaching
art at the Escuela de Bellas Artes. So I took
intensive Spanish classes and I came to study
art for two years. But the language was still
difficult for me”.
When Akiko arrived in Oaxaca there was
less tourism than there is now. “I am not
against development, but when I arrived at
Oaxaca’s Historical Center the only people
you found there were local families. That traditional atmosphere was a unique thing.”
Akiko married Mexican artist Fernando
Sandoval and the couple decided to move
to Japan. One year later, however, they returned to Oaxaca, to live in the San Felipe
neighborhood. “Japanese cities are
not like Oaxaca. It’s harder to have
as comfortable a life as the one I
have here; it is not easy to live as
an artist. Oaxaca is warm, family oriented, and the time seems
to go slower. It reminds me of my
childhood in Gifu, the rice fields,
and little automobile traffic. Now
that city is different. It has been Artist Akiko Miyashita with daughters María Nana and Sofía Yukari.
developed and it’s now like the rest
of Japan. But many changes are
taking place in this city too; the
more isolated because they have such orgaHistorical Center has become very commernized lives and services. Technology has decial and people are moving out to live in the
veloped so fast that contact with others is no
small towns nearby.”
longer possible.” These are the things Akiko
She remembers that the first time she arappreciates most about Mexico: traditions,
rived in Oaxaca, the mixture of the wind, the
family values, and friendship.
dust and the heat made her feel far away from
“The thing I miss the most about Japan is
Japan. She was also struck by the inequalities
rain, water” —because Oaxaca has such a dry
in education, economics and culture. But the
climate— “but also the sensation of belonging
biggest impression came later. “After living
to a place. Nevertheless, when I’m in Japan I
here for a year and a half I traveled by train
miss being a foreigner living in Oaxaca. I have
from Oaxaca to Mexico City to receive my
Japanese blood but my attitude is Mexican.”
parents who had come to visit me. From the
Only when the social or political problems
train I saw landscapes different from Oaxaca
seem too difficult or the water is scarce does
and Puebla, and I saw a whole town built with
she thinks about the possibility of returning
cardboard and plastic. That was the hardest
to Japan. “But I am still here, with my two
image I have ever seen in Mexico. I asked
beautiful daughters María Nana and Sofía
myself who lives here and why?”
Yukari, and my art is going well.”
She has had to face rejection by some local
She’s become a paper installation artist,
people, and has endured abuses like being
using centuries-old Japanese paper-making
overcharged for taxis or fruit and vegetables
techniques. “You can see the oaxaqueno influin markets. Recently, she has experienced
ence in my art in my drawings, the landscapes
prejudice for being divorced woman. But
of small towns and local people. Definitely,
“there are some people who have become
Mexico has had a great influence on me, it has
more open,” she says. “People in Japan are
changed my life.” ❚
[ 10 ] InsideMéxico July 2007
6/26/07 8:54:22 PM
Japanese
Panache
Tempest in a teapot
Ceramic tea kettle •Tienda H
(ache) $250.00
1000 different folds,
1000 different uses
Highest quality
origami paper •
Tienda H (ache)
$190.00
Incorporate a few simple and functional
Japanese elements to add a less-is-more
elegance and dash of spice. Follow it up with a
few delicious picks and the table is set.
Photo by Luz Montero
So worth
From Japanese to Spanish
to English and back again
– it’s easy to give up
and ask for a menu with
pictures. Here are a few
tips to help you order
with confidence.
Robalo:
Suzuki—Sea Bass
Huachinango:
Tai—Red Snapper
learning how
to pronounce
Edamame 454g
• Mikasa
Keep it together
Kimono fabric bag •
Tienda H (ache)
$175.00
$29.30
Accent with
Atún:
Maguro—Tuna
Cangrejo:
Kani—Crab
Camarón:
Ebi—Prawn
eastern flair
Lacquered
soup bowl
• Tienda H
(ache) $30.00
Anguila:
Unagi—Eel
Salmón:
Sake—Salmon
Ditch the soda
Uni-president black
tea • Mikasa $13.20
Tired of
drop the fork
Decorative
lacquered wood
chopsticks • Tienda
H (ache) $15.00
cacahuates
japoneses?
Kasugai peas
180g • Mikasa
$45.80 0
Nothing shabby
about this chic
Lacquered square plate •
Tienda H (ache) $85.00
tequila and sushi
on a pairing menu
Ozeki Sake Dry •
Mikasa $58.8
Pulpo:
Tako—Octopus
Callo de hacha:
Hotate—Scallop
Calamar:
Ika—Squid
Where to shop:
Super Kise Oriental
Div. del Norte 2515
Col. Carmen Coyoacán
5605-3430 &
5604-9602
Esmedregal:
Buri—Yellowtail
Amberjack
Pez Globo:
Fugu—Japanese
puffer fish
You’ll never see
Incentive to
Tienda H
(ache)
San Luis Potosí 173
Col. Roma
5564-9811
Sushi Cheat Sheet
Mikasa
San Luis Potosi 170
Col. Roma
5574-4859 &
5584-3430
Tadaya
San Francisco 238
Local C
Col. Del Valle
5669-5211
Yamamoto
Porfirio Díaz 918
Local 1
Col. Del Valle
5559-2100
Kume
Importaciones
Isabel la Católica 409
Col. Obrera
5538-8337
6/26/07 10:09:05 PM
Renaissance
Man
From comics to the classics,
sculptor Javier MarÍn goes in
search of humanity
by M argot L ee S hetterly
photos by : L uz M ontero
I
mature poets imitate; mature
poets steal; bad poets deface
what they take, and good poets
make it into something better,
or at least something different.
The good poet welds his theft into a
whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which
it was torn…”
–T.S. Eliot, from The Sacred Wood: Essays on Poetry and Criticism, 1922.
Javier Marín´s colossal Colonia
Roma workshop is bustling: construction workers bathed in dust climb
and descend a stairway, wielding
drills; a woman meticulously examines a schedule tacked to a door. In
one corner, four young men are moving one-sixth of the 250 kg frame that
will be part of an installation at the
Casa de America cultural center in
Madrid. Together, the six pieces will
form one of two fiberglass rings filled
with wired-together pieces of broken
molds from Marín´s many previous
sculptures—disembodied hands,
faces, torsos, so fragmented as to be
abstract—and will be attached like
wreaths to the building’s façade.
Marín’s work inspires passion.
“People identify with my work; it’s accessible,” he says. “The human figure
is the most universal thing. At some
shows, there are people who come
and they just cry and cry.”
The man himself is slender and
handsome, gracious and easygoing.
He exudes the confidence of someone at ease with their talent, neither
boastful nor artificially humble.
Born in Michoacan in 1962 to a
family of ten, Javier Marín studied
Visual Arts at the National Autonomous University (UNAM) in Mexico
City. Though gifted in photography,
painting and theater costume design,
he soon settled on sculpting, and with
the exception of a bad review at the beginning of his career (“I was just happy
Sculptor Javier Marín in his Colonia Roma studio.
that someone took the time to write a
whole page of how much they hated
my work,” he says) his 27-year career
has been an unqualified success.
An oversized coffee table book on
the sculptor and his art—beautifully curated and produced by the
artist—intersperses essays written
by critics between photographs of
his work. There are repeated references to classical and modern titans
of art, mythology and philosophy:
Aristotle and Apollo, Michelangelo
and Dante, Rodin and Nietzsche. One’s instinct is to classify Marín’s
aesthetic as classical. In a recent
exhibition at the Pinacoteca Diego
Rivera in Xalapa, Veracruz five
Above, and top: Detail of the installation for Casa de America in Madrid.
enormous heads, bearded and Poseidon-like, preside over the museum’s
entry, like a council of the Gods. But
rather than make the pieces perfect,
copying the Greco-Roman ideal that
we’ve known since grammar school,
these heads, and the other pieces
in the exhibit and in his studio, are
monumental but distorted, riddled
6/26/07 8:54:49 PM
Insight
Frida at
100
Bellas Artes
presents a
blockbuster
exhibition of
one of Mexico’s
greatest icons
by A skari M ateos
P hoto by : L uz M ontero
F
References both classical and modern characterize Marin’s work.
with holes, graffitied with cryptic
numbers and words like vivir and
ni tu ni yo. They’re at once larger
than life and vulnerable. The effect
is overwhelming.
When he refuses to be pigeonholed, when he levels the influence
of the classics in his work with that
of comic books, urban culture and
telenovelas, the claim rings true.
He robs the poses of the ancient and
Italian masters, infuses them with
the exaggerated energy and movement of pop images, and layers it all
with a directness and sentimentality
that in the hands of a lesser talent
would be hackneyed. He plays to
the audience, but we don’t mind one
bit; like the best popular culture,
Marín’s work is great art: familiar,
purloined and original. Instead of
idealized statuary, what he presents
is closer to what we view in the mirror each day—bodies and souls made
more beautiful and more interesting
by the scars of life and time.
“I want to show us the way we
are in reality, somewhere between
pleasure and torture,” he says.
The emotion in the work is individual—grief, anguish, ecstasy—and
collective: it’s difficult to view the
fragmented installation pieces like
the Casa de America ring without
recalling the genocides that have
marked the 20th and 21st centuries.
Despite Marín’s unsparing eye
—or perhaps because of it— his
sculpture is optimistic and truthful,
openly embracing all aspects of our
humanity, however ugly or painful. Like the great masters of any
epoch, he has the talent and vision
to appeal to the art world’s standard
bearers, and a popular sensibility
that roots his work in the public
realm. Ultimately, it is this rare
combination that has made Marín
not just an acclaimed Mexican artist, but one of the most successful
sculptors in the world today. Marín
won’t deny the pleasure that comes
from his work’s broad appeal.
“I love people,” he says with a
smile, acknowledging the crowds
that show up when his work is on
display. “I love that lots of people
come.” ❚
rida Kahlo was born in
Coyocan July 6, 1907.
Now, 100 years later with
Frida Kahlo 1907-2007, a
National Tribute, the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA)
and Fundación Museo Dolores Olmedo
Patiño have assembled the largest ever
exhibition of her work. It can be seen
from June 13 to August 19, where it
will fill eight galleries at the Museo del
Palacio de Bellas Artes.
Although some might downplay Frida Kahlo’s success by saying that her
work is bound to tragedy, the exhibition
offers a fascinating glimpse at the Mexican painter’s many, artistic facets. “Who
has ever said that Frida Kahlo’s paintings are naive is wrong, although we
must recognize that she was influenced
strongly by popular art and pre-hispanic symbols. Nevertheless, Frida Kahlo is
the Latin artist with the highest market
value in the world,” says Bellas Arte
director, Roxana Velásquez.
354 of her pieces are together here, including 65 oils, 45 drawings, 11 watercolors and five etchings. The exhibition also
includes unpublished documents and
manuscripts: 50 letters, 100 photographs
and one facsimile version of her dairy.
Many of these art works are emblematic (The Two Fridas), while others (Dorothy Hale’s Suicide), are little
known to the public. Some pieces have
never before been shown in Mexico.
“There’s no doubt that this is Frida
Kahlo’s most complete exhibition, ever,” says Roxana Velásquez.
The exhibition rooms are divided
thematically in an attempt to highlight
the artist’s creative process. It begins
with the self-portrait room and continues on to still lives, portraits and urban
landscapes.
The chronology begins with her early
life during the last days of the reign of
Mexican President, Porfirio Diaz, and
emphasizes the important relationship
the girl had with her father, Guillermo
Kahlo. From there it moves to the revolutionary period and Frida’s entrance,
guided by photographer Tina Modotti,
into the world of politics. The exhibit includes her travels in the United States,
her relationship with Trotsky and
Trotskyism, and, finally, her death.
In the Jose Clemente Orozco room,
visitors will see demonstrations of Frida’s
little known admiration for calligraphy;
there are the letters and manuscripts in
which she emphasized the aesthetic aspects of her texts as well as the content.
In the Justino Fernandez room you find
her work on paper: drawings, watercolors and the only etchings she made.
The photographs were curated by
Frida’s niece Cristina Kahlo. These images will give to the public an intimate
portrait of a woman who was a master
artist, personality of her time, and a
photographic model.
To celebrate this exhibition the Bellas Artes has organized several activities for people all ages, conferences and
a catalogue which includes the thoughts
and observations of 40 intellectuals,
including some of Frida Kahlo’s biographers, such as Raquel Tibol, Carlos
Fuentes, Carlos Monsiváis, Elena Poniatowska and Margo Glantz.
The show is a must. ❚
pag 13 y 20ok.indd 13
6/27/07 12:44:33 AM
The little known story
of Japanese migration
assimilation, suffering
and identity in Mexico
B y L orraine O rlandi
P h oto s by L u z M o n t e ro
W
hen they sailed across the world in 1897, Asahiro Yamamoto and
Saburo Kiyono were in their early 20s. In May of that year, they
and their fellow sailors landed in a place of searing sun and jungle
fever. They walked for more than a week into the interior, settling in Acacoyagua, Chiapas. Their dream of growing coffee there failed. Only one member of
the group returned to Japan. The rest, including Yamamoto and Kiyono, stayed.
As many as 20,000 more Japanese
Yamamoto, proudly calls herself both
followed Ashahiro and Saburo to Mexico
Mexican and Nikkei -- descended from
in the ensuing decades. They overcame
Japanese. She studies the Japanese language.
cultural and language divides, unforgiving
She loves mole and sushi.
living conditions and, in some
“I am Mexican, but I am proud of my
cases, roaming bands of armed
Japanese heritage,” Harumi says.
guerrillas. They set down roots
and prospered. Along the way, they
These family histories encapsulate
became increasingly Mexicanized,
the little-known story of the Japanese
marrying into Mexican families and giving
migration to Mexico that began 110 years
their children Spanish names.
ago. Over the past century, the Japanese
Asahiro Yamamoto had been dead for
migrants >>
years by the time the youngest of his eight
children, Francisco Rokuro Yamamoto Cruz,
francisca ono , 80, is the child of Japanese
married Kiyono’s granddaughter, Martha
emigrants to Mexico. She lives near de TapachKiyono Sanchez, in 1956. The newlyweds
ula, Chiapas, close to where the first Japanese
spoke little Japanese and settled in Mexico
colony settled. She’s photographed here in her
City to raise four children. Today, their 16brother, Ernesto’s house in Coyoacan.
year-old granddaughter, Harumi Quezada
IMX08_Main JAPAN.indd 14
6/26/07 8:24:21 PM
East
to the
Americas
6/26/07 8:24:30 PM
and their offspring have seen their culture ebb
and flow in their adopted patria. For decades
they were largely forgotten as they dispersed
and assimilated into Mexican society. During World War II many hid their Japanese
heritage or, at the behest of the United States
government, were transplanted by Mexican
authorities from rural homes to metropolitan
centers. Now, many of the descendants are
looking back and celebrating their Japanese
ancestry.
“My upbringing at home inculcated Japanese values, like discipline, honor and loyalty,”
says Harumi. “But you must adapt to the country where you live and take the best from each
culture. Mexican people are hard-working,
warm, spontaneous. One can share these different approaches to life.”
The Enomoto Migration
Toward the end of the 19th Century, Mexican
President Porfirio Diaz looked to draw immigrants and foreign investment to modernize
his poor and largely indigenous nation. Diaz
was the first foreign leader to sign a friendship
and trade pact with Japan in 1888 and the first
Latin American leader to encourage Japanese
emigration.
“Mexico had pretty much given up on the
Indians, saying the Indians are holding back
modernization so we have to take land away
from them and give it to immigrants, especially white immigrants,” says Michigan State
University historian Jerry Garcia, a specialist
in the migration.
Nine years later, the Enomoto migration
was launched. The Japanese government purchased 65,000 hectares of land in Mexico’s
Soconusco region near the Guatemalan border,
and sent 36 young men, including Ashahiro
and Saburo, off to farm coffee there.
“They were promised land to plant and grow
coffee, but when they arrived they were given
the worst land possible to grow coffee and they
lacked proper equipment,” says Garcia. “Their
inexperience played a part, but essentially
the best coffee land was already taken up by
Germans who had come a little bit earlier. The
Japanese and Mexican governments are both
culprits. Mexico promised land and resources,
the Japanese government promised to help
them with start-up funds through the consulate in Mexico City, but the consulate pretty
much turned a blind eye to the situation.”
Desperate, a handful of the colonists walked
from Chiapas to Mexico City to confront Japanese officials. They arrived on the consul’s
doorstep in tattered clothes, sunburned and
hungry after a 30 day walk, Garcia says. They
were returned to Chiapas. But the arrival of
a group of Japanese Christians revived the
colony. The newcomers started cattle ranches
and introduced other successful businesses
into the community.
“They were not just farmers, there were cattle ranchers and really prominent people from
Japan,” Isao Toda, president of the Mexico
Japanese Association in Mexico City, says of
the early immigrants. “It’s said that some were
trained as Samurai warriors. That’s the only
way they could have survived as they did.”
Toda comments that the impact of the Japanese on the Chiapas locals “must have been
something like when the Aztecs first saw the
conquistadors, with their elaborate clothing
and their formal ways.” Still he and descendants of the first immigrants emphasize that
the local people welcomed the strangers and
likely saved them from perishing altogether.
Revolution in Acacoyagua
By 1910, the immigrants’ new homeland was
engulfed in the first revolution of the 20th Century, which ended the autocratic three-decade
rule of Porfirio Diaz. The civil war touched
virtually all sectors of Mexican society. The
Japanese immigrants were not exempt from
the struggle and the changes, though by remaining neutral they perhaps were spared the
worst of the conflict’s atrocities.
Jose Martin Nomura Hernandez, 31, is municipal president of Acacoyagua. It’s still a
farming town and counts among its 15,000
residents, what is probably country’s largest
concentration of Japanese descendants. It is
no doubt one of the few towns in Mexico where
white rice is a dietary staple.
“[During the revolution] there were rebels
in Acacoyagua, the townspeople were fighting
among themselves, and my great-grandfather
was a mediator,” Nomura says. “They sought
him out to intervene [and make peace].”
The youngest son of Asahiro Yamamoto,
Francisco Yamamoto, tells how his father single-handedly defended the homestead from
revolutionaries who came to town in search
of weapons.
“They came shooting, and it might have
been a Sunday because everyone was away,”
Yamamoto says. “My father was home alone
with my mother and the children. He shut
the door and started firing out the window.
My mother passed him the guns -- he had an
arsenal. Then he went out the back door and
started shooting. The rebels ran. He saved our
family and home that day.”
Over the years, some Japanese immigrants
traveled north from Chiapas, mainly to Mexico
City and coastal fishing areas where they began making a mark as businessmen, doctors
and dentists, educators and scientists.
Tamiko Kawabe teaches dance
at the Ginrei Kai. She and Miriam
make a bridge for students: Kenzo
Kihara (3); Ilda Aceves (11); Naoko
Kihara; y Lourdes Córdoba (17).
6/26/07 8:24:38 PM
Beatiful tradition Practicing Japanese fan dance at
the Ballet Monderno Mexicano
Ginrei Kai in San Pedro de los
Pinos, DF.
Yamamoto family Descendants of two of the first Japanese
to arrive Mexico, Harumi Quezada, Francisco Rokuro Yamamoto, Martha Kiyono y Martha
Hamamoto Kiyono at home in
the Colonia Roma
6/26/07 8:24:59 PM
Teporingo Rabbit An estimated 7,500 to 12,000 teporingo rabbits make their home in the zacatón grasses in Parque Izta-Popo. These short-eared little hoppers are particular about their re
grass habitat – everything from forest fires to litter – endangers it further.
In Colonia Las Águilas in
Mexico City, the garden of the
Mexico Japanese Association is
a community haven built from
WWII reparations.
Family tradition ,Tamiko
Kawabe with her daughter in law
Naoko Kihara.
World War II
As they prospered, some Japanese families sent
their Mexican-born children to Japan to study
and to learn to read and write Japanese. These
young Mexicans arrived in a nation preparing
for war.
When he began his schooling in Japan in 1938,
Yoshiya Nishimura, born in Veracruz, was 11
years old. By the time he started high school, he
and his classmates were being trained to handle
weapons and meet an American invasion.
“They told us, ‘on such a day and at such an
hour, you will become a soldier of the Japanese
Empire,’” says Nishimura, now 80 and retired
from a 30-year career in Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government was pressuring their Mexican counterpart to round up
Japanese nationals and citizens of Japanese
descent into US style internment camps. For
the most part (A small number of “high risk”
Japanese citizens and Germans were put in a
camp in Veracruz, according Isao Toda.) Mexico
resisted the US demands, agreeing only to move
Japanese Mexicans away from coastal and border
areas. Most were relocated to Mexico City and
Guadalajara, where they were monitored but not
detained. Only the lives of the Japanese Mexicans
in Chiapas continued uninterrupted, thanks to a
petition by the state governor who cited their
critical contribution to the local economy.
Those who were moved stayed in cheap hotels
or with other Japanese Mexican families until
they could start over in the new place.
Francisca Ono de Takemura was 14 and the eldest of seven children when her father was forced
to sell his Mexican restaurant in Tepic, Nayarit,
and move his family to Mexico City.
“All of us who lived in Tepic left; we were six
families. Each one looked for a place to live,” says
Takemura, now 79. “My mother was very sad. But
she kept it to herself.”
A delicate, gracious woman with a ready
laugh, Takemura hesitates when asked about
the relocation. It was traumatic, she admits,
but she now believes it was for the best that
her family moved to the city. Like other Japanese descendants, she is quick to point out the
generosity that Mexico has shown the Japanese
community over the years.
“They say that in some countries in South
America the Japanese were not treated well. In
Mexico we are held in high esteem. I am Mexican
by birth and it is an honor because Mexico is a
very worthy country. We are happy our parents
came to Mexico, because here we have lived contentedly.”
Meanwhile, Nishimura, who spent years trying to get out of Japan, finally got home in 1948,
a decade after he was sent away.
“A week after I got back [to Mexico] they sent a
messenger from the National Palace,” he recalls.
Nishimura was informed he was being drafted
into the Mexican army. “Again I picked up a
gun,” he says. But before he was dispatched to
the northern city of Monterrey, the draft ended
and he was excused from service. In his early
20s, he repeated primary and secondary school
in Mexico. He finished his engineering degree at
the UNAM when he was 31 and went to work for
the electric utility.
In 1957, the Mexican government paid
700,000 pesos in reparations to the Japanese
Mexican community for their suffering and
loss of property during WWII. A matching gift
from Japanese businessmen led to the founding of the Mexico Japanese Association, created to bring the two cultures closer together.
The association’s luxurious compound-- complete with restaurant, language school, meeting
center and swimming pool-- provides a haven
for the community in the south of Mexico City
Proud to be Japanese, in Mexico
The nationalist fervor that followed the 1910
revolution changed Mexico’s immigrant policies.
Unlike other Latin American countries, such as
Peru and Brazil, that encourage Japanese to emigrate, Mexico basically closed the door. Today, an
estimated 15,000 Japanese Mexicans live among
a national population of more than 100 million.
6/26/07 8:25:22 PM
out their real estate; they only live near volcanoes and, like nearly 1,000 mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians in Mexico, they are found only in this country. Anything that destroys its tall
Kenzo Kawabe , 3, grandson
of Tamiko Kawabe.
Remembering the ancestors, Columns bearing the
names of the Japanese pioneers who emigrated to Mexico,
stand in the garden of the Mexico Japanese Association.
In some ways, theirs has been more a story
of successful blending than those of other immigrant groups. The Chinese, for example, also
came to Chiapas around the turn of the previous century, but their history in Mexico is more
painful.
“The Chinese did not completely assimilate
into Mexican society during the early part of
the 20th Century,” says the Michigan State historian, Garcia. “A lot of Chinese men brought
their wives with them. Japanese men primarily
came single and married Mexican women. In the
Chinese experience, there were harsh atrocities
during the early part of Mexican revolution.
They were massacred and expelled. That didn’t
happen to the Japanese. Assimilation protected
them. But this assimilation also explains why it’s
kind of a forgotten past in Mexico. “
This invisibility gives rise to an identity question that troubles many Japanese Mexicans. A
few years ago Patricia Murakami was visiting
New York when she was robbed and her Mexican
passport stolen. She went to the Mexican consulate and was turned away. “They told me, ‘this is
not the place, you’re Asian,’” says Mexican-born
Murakami, 41. “In Japan we are not Japanese,
and in Mexico we are not Mexican.”
But like Harumi Quezada Yamamoto, Murakami says she takes the best of both worlds
and values them equally. When a Japanese
woman won the Miss Universe pageant – held
in Mexico this past June – Murakami cheered. In
the World Cup soccer tournament, she has two
teams to root for. She teaches Japanese language
and studies Japanese dance.
Nikkei in Mexico hold dear what they see as
Japanese commitment to hard work and education. According to Carlos Kasuga Osaka, the
CEO of Yakult Mexico, 74% of Nikkei are university educated.
Francisco Yamamoto proudly relates that his
four children are all successful professionals. He
and other Nikkei say they are grateful to Mexico
for opening its arms to their ancestors and giving
them a new country in which to live, build families and prosper. Francisca Ono de Takemura
helped found the Enomoto Association in Acacoyagua, where she has lived since marrying into
one of the original immigrant families in 1950.
The organization does small community projects
as a way of giving something back to the people
who first welcomed the Japanese, she says.
Nishimura, who was almost drafted into
armies on opposite sides of the Pacific and now
collects a modest Mexican government pension,
has no doubt about where he will end up. “I was
born in Mexico. I am 80 years old and the end is
nearing,” he says with a chuckle. “Yes, I go to Japan to visit. But where to live day to day, where
to die and be buried, well, it’s Mexico.”❚
6/26/07 8:25:44 PM
Taste of
the rising sun
For almost 40
years, Suntory
has been
bringing the
traditions
of Japan to
Mexican diners
Chef Masahiko Muto of Suntory Restaurant
B y M argot L ee S hetterly
P hotos by L uz M ontero
Suntory Executive Chef
Masahiko Muto has spent
a decade at the flagship
restaurant in Mexico
Dark wood paneling and white tablecloths lend
the dining room a classic feel
Gold foil adorns this dish made of cod, fish eggs
and cherry tomatoes
“Dozo omeshia gari kudasai.”
Masahiko Muto, Executive
Chef of the Japanese restaurant
Suntory, explains that before and
after eating, Japanese diners say
this quick blessing for the food
at the table and for those who
prepared it. It’s a little different
from the Mexican buen provecho,
but just as traditional.
Since the restaurant opened
in Mexico City´s Del Valle neighborhood in 1970—the Japanese
whisky maker’s first foray into
the restaurant business—Suntory has enjoyed a revered place
in the Mexican culinary landscape, even before Japanese cuisine was commonplace in cities
like New York and Los Angeles.
Chef Muto, who spent his 22
years career in Suntory restaurants in Singapore, Vancouver,
Sao Paolo and Atlanta before
coming to Mexico ten years
ago, says the owners of Suntory had personal acquaintances
in Mexico, and wanted to bring
Japanese cuisine and culture to
the country. Suntory’s clientele
is 90% Mexican, and grill items
like tepanyaki and shabu shabu
are favorites.
“The base of what we do
is classic Japanese cuisine, but
we make some adjustments for
Mexican tastes, like serving soy
sauce with chili and lime,” says
Chef Muto.
An exquisite platter of fried
pieces of chicken resting on a
bed of chiles provides another
example. “The fried chicken is
a very typical Japanese dish, but
here we fry it in oil that has been
soaked overnight in chile de árbol,
to infuse the chicken with that
flavor. Garlic in this platter is another Mexican touch.”
And what about cream
cheese, a ubiquitous ingredient
in sushi rolls in Mexico?
“Cream cheese in sushi
originated in the United States.
California rolls and other rolls
that use non traditional ingredients like cream cheese and
avocado started there, and
since the United States and
Mexico are closely linked, these
rolls eventually found their way
down here.”
This being said, the restaurant presents a large menu with
all the sushi, sashimi and rolls
that diners around the world
have come to love, as well as
a smaller menu of Japanese
specialties like fugu (called pez
globo in Spanish, or puffer fish
in English), the renowned deli-
cacy which can be fatal if not
prepared properly.
The restaurant’s staff, including four trained sushi
chefs, is mostly Mexican, which
means paying extra attention to
language and cultural barriers.
“[With a Japanese staff] I
can use few words, everyone
understands everything. Here,
I have to explain more.” However, Muto’s team has learned
many Japanese terms, and even
though they don’t go so far as
to prepare sushi at home (“Fish
is very expensive here,” says
Masa) they do cook simpler
dishes for their families like
Japanese-style fried rice.
North of the border, the
synergies between Mexican
cooks and Japanese cuisine
are exploding. A recent article
published in the magazine New
York Resident investigates how
a shortage of Japan-trained
cooks has led to a growing
number of Mexican and Latin
American susheros helming
Japanese restaurants in New
York and Chicago. In the sushi
chef competition of the 2006
Japanese food festival in Los
Angeles’ Little Tokyo, a Salvadoran and a Mexican won first
and third place, respectively.
Suntory has closed its doors
in many other countries around
the world due to sharply increased competition. According to the Japanese Ministry of
Agriculture, there are 20,000
Japanese restaurants worldwide. In the US there are now
9,000, twice as many as there
were a decade ago (the only
Suntory still open in the US or
Canada is in Hawaii). Here in
Mexico, however, Suntory is
still an institution, synonymous
with authentic Japanese cuisine, and is expanding rather
than shrinking. In addition to
its two branches in Mexico City
(Del Valle and Lomas) and one
each in Guadalajara and Acapulco, Grupo Suntory owns
the Polanco restaurant Sunka
(Mexican with Japanese touches), Santa Fe’s Shu (Japanese
fusion) and is opening another
Shu in Acapulco this year.
With its dark wood paneling, white tablecloths and
manicured garden, the flagship
Del Valle restaurant feels like
a throwback, as if the décor
hasn´t changed a whit in almost
four decades of business. Recent years have brought younger, hipper Japanese restaurants
to the scene, but Suntory is still
Mexico´s Japanese godfather.
“This was the first authentic
Japanese restaurant in Mexico,
says Chef Masa. “Every day, every week, every month, the clients keep coming. For decades
it was the parents, and now we
see their children here.” ❚
pag 13 y 20ok.indd 20
6/27/07 12:45:27 AM
What’s your
Eat In
or
Eat Out
This month, we asked Inside
México readers and staff
which Japanese restaurants
they love, and why. Here’s
what they said:
favorite
Japanese
Restaurant?
LOS CABOS
GUADALAJARA
MEXICO CITY
MEXICO CITY
MEXICO CITY
Nick San
Two locations:
Las Tiendas de Palmilla,
Local 116
Tel: (624) 144-6262
and Blvd. Marina,
Lote 10, Local 2
Tel: (624) 143-4484
www.nicksan.com
Expensive
Tokai
Av. Providencia 2802,
Col. Providencia
Tel: (33) 3641-2285
Moderate
Tori Tori
Anatole France 71,
Col. Polanco
Tel: (55) 5280-9069
Moderate to Expensive
Sushi Taro
Av. Universidad 1861,
Col. Coyoacán
Tel: (55) 5561-4083
Moderate
Mikasa
San Luis Potosí 173,
Col. Roma
Tel: (55) 5584-3430
Inexpensive
“A bit hard to spot, up on the
second floor of a non-descript building. Fabulous sushi, and also serve those giant,
bubbling soups that you keep
hot at the table, plus some stir
fried dishes. Very pleasant,
low-key atmosphere. If it’s
good enough for the Japanese embassy
crowd...”
Ceci Connolly,
Inside Mexico
Columnist
”For lunch-on-the-go,
pop into this Asian food
store for boxed sushi,
noodle dishes, tempura
and Teriyaki. A weekend
cook -out in front of
the store proffers grilled
goodness- fresh and hot.”
Catherine Dunn,
Inside Mexico
Reporter
“The tuna tostadas are
a fusion of Mexican and
Japanese food and the
sashimi cilantro is amazing,
almost
addictive.”
Luis González,
lawyer
“One of the best spots in
Guadalajara for fresh sushi
and people watching
-ranchero crooner
Alejandro Fernandez is
frequently spotted there.
A new location recently
opened on Avenida
Guadalupe in
colonia
Chapalita.”
David Agren,
journalist
“The excellent service, a
fresh and interesting menu
and impeccable presentation
invite you to extend the Friday
afternoon sobremesa right on
into dinner time. Sit upstairs
and you’ll feel like you’re in a
treehouse far from the hustle
and bustle of the city.”
Maya Harris,
Inside Mexico
Business
Development
21-24.indd 21
6/27/07 10:54:55 AM
Japanese grape
by carlo cibo
photos by luz montero
Off island,
very little is
known about
the wine
produced in
the land of
the rising sun.
Better known as an avid importer of wines, Japan has produced
dry and sweet wines for centuries. In the year 1186, koshu
grapes—Japan’s only indigenous
wine-making grape, which produces a fruity white wine—were
being cultivated in vineyards
around Mount Fuji. This region,
south of the Kofu Valley and
east of Tokyo, is still Japan’s
most important wine producing region. There the vines are
Wine?
nourished by rich volcanic soils
and the fruit ripens during the
long sunny days.
Most of Japan’s wine producing areas are found on the
south part of the main island.
However, the island Hokkaido in the north has two wine
producing regions, and another
island, Kyushu, in the south, has
one.
After conducting extensive surveys abroad, Japanese
vintners brought back popular
American hybrids at the end
of the 19th century. These are
still the country’s most popular
varietals: Campbell’s Early (a red
grape); Delaware (a delicate but
acidic white, good for sparkling
wine); and the Muscat Bailey
A (a hybrid of the Koshu which
produces a good rosé). These
wines, along with the Koshu,
represent 85% of the viniculture
Everyday
Wines
Good and inexpensive
Penta
Tempranillo, Cabernet sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah y Petit verdot
Bodega Pago del Vicario
Castilla, España
The name refers to the five
months the wine spends in the cask,
the blend of five varietals, and the five
senses it’s meant to stimulate. The
color is a blood red with a pomegranate edge. The red, fruity notes—almost kirsch—tempt the nose. After it
breathes, you will find hints of balsam
and rosemary. It’s for people who like
a simple, but expressive wine that
goes with a variety of foods. If you try
a glass at Entrevinos, you will drink
more than one cup.
in Japan. The rest is made up of
Semillon, Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and
Merlot.
The 1970s was a time of
change for Japan’s wine industry. Foreign wine experts arrived
from France and Australia and
introduced grapes from France
and Germany. Three Japanese
multinationals, Sanraku, Mann
and Suntory, constructed ultramodern vineyards to produce
wines for the domestic market.
Japan is best known for its
sake (rice wine) but its incipient but stable production of
grape wine bodes well for the
industry’s future. Even though
grape-based wine is not a
significant part of the culinary
tradition, Japan’s population
has the disposable income
necessary to cultivate a taste
for wine. The forecast for
wine consumption in Japan is
robust, especially given that it’s
at only 5% right now and has
far to go to catch up with beer
(70%). 33% of wine sales are
of Japanese vintages, with the
balance of sales being wines
from France, Italy, Germany
and Spain, as well as New
World producers like the US,
Chile and Australia.
Although it might take
some time for Japanese wines
to appear in Mexican wine
stores, Asian specialty food
stores here will begin stocking them in the near future.
In the meantime, however,
you can experiment by pairing
sushi and other Japanese food
with complimentary wines like
Riesling. Champagne is a good
pair with sushi, and you might
also try a Mexican white like
Monte Xanic.
expert
Special Occasion
Wines
Carlo Cibo
With a good price/quality ratio, these
wines are well structured and elegant
and make excellent gifts. The price
is under $500.00.
choice
Each month,
we’ll bring
you a fresh
perspective
on the wines
we drink and
why we love
them.
Paulinha
Merlot 60%, Barbera 25% and
Petit Sirah 15%, Viñas Pijoan
Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California
An intense coincidence of aromas,
very fruity, with notes of red fruit and
fresh plums set off by herbs. Full in
the mouth, pleasant, fresh, easy to
drink, with a medium finish. It’s a good
Mexican wine, from a small, family
vineyard and is well worth trying. You
can find it in specialty shops like Delirio
in Colonia Roma.
21-24.indd 22
6/27/07 10:55:12 AM
Viva
Vinos!
Inside México and Tierra de Vinos’
Wine Tasting
photos by luz montero
T
On June 19, Inside México and Tierra
de Vinos hosted a wine tasting for
the IMX Community at the Tierra de Vinos restaurant in Santa Fe. On a rainy Tuesday night, 140 people turned out and all, it
appeared, had a wonderful time meeting old
friends and new, networking and trying out a
superb selection of wines.
ierra de Vinos and Inside
México promoted 5 topend wines at the tasting
and have decided to extend the
special, IMX Community Price
for the entire month of July.
If you know what you want to
order, call the numbers (below) and have the wine delivered
right to your home.
Ensable Colina 2005,
Paralelo, Ensenada, Mexico
Regular price: $624 / IMX
Reader price: $575
Crios Torrontes 2006,
Dominio del Plata. Cafayate,
Argentina. Regular price: $233 /
IMX Reader price: $185
Aglianico 2004,
Mastroberardino. Irpinia
(Campania), Italy, Regular
price: $319 / IMX Reader price:
$268
Lat. 42 Reserva 1998, La Rioja
Alta. Rioja, Spain.
Regular price: $300 / IMX
Reader price: $264
Suavignon Blanc 2004,
Gramona. Cataluña, Spain.
Regular price: $399/ IMX
Reader price: $330
Call now and identify yourself as an Inside Mexico reader to get the IMX reader
price. Tierra de Vinos Santa Fe:
(55) 5292-3431 Tierra de Vinos Durango:
(55) 5208-5133
Luxury
Wines
This wine can be enjoyed now, or
kept for a later date.
Reserva Magna
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot,
Nebbiolo y shiraz
Casa Pedro Domecq
Ensenada, Baja California, México
This is a great blend, kept in French
oak barrels 18 months and aged in the
bottle for a year. It’s an intense red
with touches of purple. The body is
full and velvety, a sign of this wine’s
unique complexity. If you hold it in
your mouth, the French oaks stands
out, combining with dried fruit, finishing with a light tang.
It’s a connoisseur’s wine, ideal for
all types of red meat. Find it in specialty
shops and in department stores.
Who’s feeling lucky? IMX wine tasters wait expectantly to see who’s going to win the wine raffle.
The Budd family turned out in style: Jessica and
Karen with father, Jimm.
Monica Balbontín of BBVA Bancomer and her
daughter, Alejandra.
21-24.indd 23
6/27/07 10:55:33 AM
Upset
stomach?
It could be lactose
intolerance
B y G eorgina del A ngel C abrera P hoto by L uz M ontero
e all know
what it feels
like to have
digestive
issues. If
these continue unchecked the
symptoms can affect our lives
dramatically and diminish our
professional performance. It is
important that we understand
our bodies and the reaction our
digestive tracts has to different
foods. This awareness will ensure our comfort and well-being.
The gastrointestinal tract
is comprised of the mouth,
larynx, pharynx, stomach, small
intestine, large intestine (colon)
and rectum. Food passes along
the entire route, getting mashed
and dissolved until it arrives at
the small intestine where, thanks
to a variety of enzymes, nutrients can be adequately absorbed
to nourish the body. What is
not absorbed is passed through
the large intestine and excreted
through the rectum.
The small intestine is lined
with villi and contains a plethora
of different enzymes that break
down nutrients (carbohydrates,
proteins and lipids) for absorption.
Food intolerances happen when
the body lacks a particular enzyme
to digest certain foods. Such is the
case when the body doesn’t produce lactase, an enzyme needed
to digest lactose, the carbohydrate
in dairy products.
The concentration of intestinal lactase is greater when we
are born, as milk is our principal
nourishment. With age the production of this enzyme diminishes. However production of
the enzyme will continue when
there is a constant consumption
of lactose, allowing many individuals to maintain a tolerance
through adulthood.
Factors that diminish
intestinal lactase:
As previously mentioned, age
is the principal factor for the
Long Term
Stays in
Mexico
City
B y F ederico M onsalve P hotos by L uz M ontero
reduction in production of
intestinal lactase. Nonetheless,
illness (frequent diarrhea) and
genetic factors also affect the
concentration of lactase and can
present lactose intolerance.
to keep eating foods that the
enzymes you do have can
dissolve, and you should add
nutritious foods that contain
probiotics to your diet.
Lactose Intolerance
Probiotics are lactic bacteria that
feed on the cells in the small
intestine and help maintain the
health of the small intestine.
These lactic bacteria (lactobacillus bulgaricus, streptococcus
thermophilus, casei chirota)
are in cultured products like
yogurt. Currently there are a lot
of products on the market that
contain lactobacillus. Nonetheless, the product that scientific
studies report to have the best
effect on intestinal villi is Yakult,
which contains the lactobacillus
casei chirota.
A person is considered lactose
intolerant when 12.5 grams of
lactose (what is found in 240
ml of milk) or less produces
symptoms like intestinal noise,
gas and diarrhea. When this
occurs it is advisable to eliminate
lactose from the diet. This protects the villi and small intestine
from frequent diarrhea that can
severely damage the digestive
tract and produce a number of
additional food intolerances.
If I am lactose intolerant,
what can I do?
Most importantly, you must
try to reduce the symptoms of
intolerance to maintain a healthy
small intestine. It is important
Probiotics
I suggest taking one 80 ml.
bottle of Yakult everyday in the
morning with breakfast or at
least three times a week. ❚
Georgina del Ángel is a nutritionist and researcher
at the Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Nutrition in Mexico City, specializing in nutrition and the
treatment of chronic and degenerative diseases. Any
questions? health@insidemex.com
Somewhere between a
hotel and an apartment,
these long-term stay
residences can be a
good option for business
people, students and
others who are in town for
a week or longer
Platón 294,
Polanco
150 m2, 1 BR, 1.5 bath, 2
parking spaces, 24-hour
security + elevator. $2,800
USD/month.
This partly furnished condominium opens to a narrow
hallway of stark white walls
and light formica floors.
A clear plastic bookshelf
– perhaps a touch of postmodern humor -- is dotted
with old hardcover books,
and a wall of floor-to-ceiling French windows faces the
tree covered street.
Rising architectural star,
Andrés Mier y Terán (he’s
responsible for the design of
restaurants Moshi Moshi and
La Crepe Parisienne Bistro,
among others) emphasized
the apartment’s industrial
elements – corrugated metal
ceilings, a grey brick wall in
the living room – with thick
plastic detailing, glass, and
raw metal touches scattered
throughout.
This loft has plenty of style,
yet minimalism is a love-it or
leave-it affair. For some it is
the epitome of simplicity; for
others it is just lacks soul and
warmth.
21-24.indd 24
6/27/07 10:55:46 AM
Suites Ejecutivas
Giorgio
Río Lerma 166, Cuauhtémoc
From 75 m2 to 100 m2, from
1 - 2 BR, 1 - 2 bath, 1 parking
space. 24-hour security +
elevator, gym, and maid service. From $2,000 - $3,300
USD/month.
The Giorgio’s basic and nofrills design walks a line somewhere between a hotel room
and a nomad’s apartment.
Plain, dark wood furnishings
invoke quiet, solid practicality
rather than flair and overt aesthetics. Designed with business travellers in mind, these
suites come with high-speed
internet in every room, a small
business center with computer
ports and a conference area,
and hotel services such as daily
cleaning and cable TV.
If you’re staying in to work,
you’ll have a comfortable living room, a large couch, desk,
work table and a well equipped
Culiacan 6, La
Condesa
Apartment: 95 m2, 1 BR, 1.5
bath, roof garden
Also available: three individual
rooms (two share a bathroom), communal kitchen
and living areas. Free wi-fi
throughout the house. From
$50 - $150USD/day; the
apartment has discounts for
week- and month-long stays.
This casa de huespedes (guest
house) welcomes you with a
colorful, bohemian palette,
friendly hosts and a very playful Labrador. The building,
which neighbors have baptized
“The Red Tree House,” is
kitchenette. The central location also puts you within walking distance of the Ángel de
la Independencia monument.
The Giorgio is less than a year
old and doesn’t yet have a
restaurant or room service, yet
Río Lerma street is a popular
hang out offering sports bars
and restaurants; you can cruise
more eateries and bars in Zona
Rosa, a 10-minute walk away.
To Kiss, or not
to Kiss?
Part 1: Business
etiquette in Mexico
B y E milio B etech R.
O
perched in the heart of trendy
Condesa, only a short stroll
from skads of neighborhood
restaurants, cafes and bars.
Tasteful contemporary
paintings, luscious fresh flowers and potted plants decorate
the house where light is the
central element. Flood light
mingles, to great effect, with
that of floor and hanging
lamps, candles and even a few
oil torches.
The rooftop apartment’s
color scheme -- mustard yellow and crimson – along with
red terracotta tiling and large
windows which allow in natural
light and gentle breezes, combine to give more a feeling of
hacienda than city dwelling.
A very minor downside
for those renting the rooftop
apartment is the need to share
the main entrance to the house
with other guests.
It’s clear that “The Red
Tree House” has been a labor
of love for its owners. ❚
For more information on
these apartments and real
estate in Mexico, email marketmeter@insidemex.com.
ne of the
most interesting things
that comes to
mind when
you compare life in Mexico
with that of other countries, is the way we work.
The hours we punch in, the
speed with which we process our to-do lists…we do
it differently in Mexico.
In this column for Inside
México, I’ll explore issues
related to working in Mexico, primarily those dealing
with entrepreneurship. The
challenge of starting a business here can be daunting.
What permits will you need
to kick-start your operation? How do you negotiate
with Mexican business
people? What are the legal
and fiscal guidelines?
The general Mexican
work etiquette is basically
laid back. Even in urban
areas, with our hectic
schedules, people take long
lunches and not a few siestas. Personal honor is highly regarded. And, despite
the presence of strong Mexican businesswomen, the
macho still reigns supreme.
This is the first chapter in a
survey of Mexican business
etiquette.
My time or your time?
Don’t expect punctuality
in parties or dinner invitations, but when it comes to
work, Mexicans are more
punctual than you might
think. Getting to a work ap-
pointment 15 minutes late
is a big no-no. But if you call
and blame it on the traffic,
you’re OK. (You can pretty
much blame everything on
the traffic.) If you schedule
a meeting more than three
days in advance, it’s a good
idea to call and confirm, as
many Mexicans do not use
a calendar and may forget
an appointment.
Dress up… or button
down? Men usually wear
a conservative dark suit
and tie to work, and most
women a skirt and blouse.
In some fields of work and
in small towns, casual
wear -- meaning chinos
and a light shirt for men
and a nice dress for women
-- is increasingly common.
Jeans, T-shirts, and tennis
shoes are usually not considered appropriate. Revealing clothing for women
and shorts for either sex
are highly inappropriate.
To kiss or not to kiss?
When it comes to forms of
address, there are many
different styles. It is important to follow your gut and
imitate what others do. Men
will always shake hands in
greeting, and most women
will as well. A friendly kiss
on one cheek is common between a man and a woman.
However, you should wait
until she offers her cheek.
Many women will not ever
kiss and will be offended if
you attempt it.
Business cards are always
exchanged in a first meeting. Mexicans love their
professional titles, and use
them constantly. The most
common title is licenciado
which can apply to practically any college graduate.
These titles are followed by
the person’s surname. The
male courtesy title is señor
(Mister) and the female
can be a señora (Mrs.) or
señorita (Miss) followed
by a surname. If you do
not know the person’s last
name, you can just use the
courtesy title.
Mexican men can be jolly and warm, and may initiate friendly physical contact, touching shoulders or
holding the arm of another.
Withdrawing from these
gestures may be perceived
as insulting. If you have
a close relationship with
your contact, you may hug
him or her (be prepared
for a hug on the second or
third meeting). This hug
is accompanied by hearty
back-slap, followed by a
second handshake. It is a
sign of good will, a basic
tenet in Mexican business
culture. ❚
To be continued…
Emilio Betech R. is a
Marketing and Training
consultant, and writes for
the newspaper El Economista and Entrepreneur magazine. You can reach him at:
emiliobet_2@yahoo.com
IMX06_25.indd 25
6/27/07 11:16:00 AM
Imagine getting to live in each of these houses. All it takes is, giving up yours and adapting to the schedules of others.
The life of
a full-time
housesitter
B y D avid A gren , in A jijic , J alisco
P hotos by S teven M iller
Steven Miller stopped paying rent
years ago, but he never lacks a comfortable place to crash. The retired
U.S. Air Force officer housesits fulltime in the Lake Chapala area – and
sometimes other places – and finds
no shortage of homeowners looking
for someone to care for their places while traveling or heading back
north. A quick glance at his calendar
shows no free time until November,
when he plans on heading to Argentina for several months.
He broke into housesitting by accident and never advertises his services. While he seldom complains
about his lifestyle, the occasional
mishap – like having the refrigerator suddenly quit – can sap the joy
out of an assignment. Miller spoke
to Inside Mexico about the ups and
downs of housesitting and the places
he’s lived.
How did you get into housesitting?
“About four years ago my neighbour asked me to housesit for them
and move into their house while
they were gone. I was renting a
large home at Lakeside (the Chapala area) ... and could have just fed
the two small dogs as needed, but
homeowners want someone to live in
the home, watch over it and the pets,
and sleep there. After that, it was
was all word of mouth and non-stop
requests ever since.
“Two reasons I’m in demand: I
don’t charge and I often fix things
that don’t work. I have two pensions
so I’m financially secure.”
What are the benefits and the
downside of what you do?
“Living in luxury homes yearround, rent free that usually include
a maid, gardener, pool and spa, is an
attractive lifestyle. I enjoy the pets
and the change of pace, homes, and
locations. But best of all, I meet the
nicest people and often become good
friends.
“A downside is that when you
need a fork it’s not in the same drawer as the last home and
the light switches have moved. I
had to fire a gardener once, but hired
and new one that was much better.
One home sprung a water leak on
the roof in the middle of the night
and flooded. I fixed it and the maid
and I had all the clothes and such
dried out, cleaned and put back so
the homeowners didn’t know until
they returned. There was little evidence of a mishap. It also helps to be
mechanically inclined.”
Steve Miller enjoys the comfort of luxury homes without
paying the mortgage
What have been some of the best
assignments you’ve received?
“The best one are long term, three
or four months in great locations.
I’ve had many including a large, luxury, Mexican home in San Miguel de
Allende which included the use of a
big, new Honda all-terrain vehicle.
Housesits Lakeside often include use
of a car, but ATVs are more fun.”
What kind of home style is most
common in Ajijic/Lakeside?
“Most are quite large, newer,
hillside lakeview homes with pool,
lush gardens, and breathtaking views of Lake Chapala. Cool
breezes and gorgeous sunsets are
the norm. Most are quite modern
with all the amenities including a
gourmet kitchen, dishwasher, whole
house softened and purified water,
satellite TV, wireless high-speed Internet, and a large carport for my
minivan.” ❚
Tips For Housesitters
Prerequisites: Common sense, flexibility, the ability to learn the habits of
others.
In case of emergency: Get phone
numbers for emergency services,
friends, neighbors, and know how to
shut of the electricity, water and gas.
Compensation: Must include free
housing, and may include perks such
as use of automobile and a small
salary.
Contact: Always know how to get in
touch with the owner.
pliego 3 back.indd 26
6/26/07 10:55:24 PM
Transporting
a Life
The ins and outs of preparing
a menaje de casa
B y C arolyn G oldman
T
hey say you carry your home in
your heart. But, when I moved
here eight months ago, I hired
movers to collect 157 boxes from my
overstuffed New York City apartment
and transport them across the Mexican
border.
I was seven months pregnant and
leaving family, friends, job and birthplace behind. A sanctuary of familiar
things, I believed, would ease my transition to Mexico. So I packed what I’d
collected over the course of a lifetime,
including a trove of flea market items
awaiting re-upholstery and at least one
half-used roll of aluminum foil.
When I called the movers to set a
date for pickup I hadn’t yet researched
the requirements for trucking my stuff
to Mexico. Without transport approval
from the Mexican government, the moving company wouldn’t move. Instead of
heading to Mexico, 4000-pounds of my
old life were deposited at a storage facility in Upper Manhattan.
I’d assumed that, married to a Mexican national, moving my stuff wouldn’t
require working out my immigration
status. I was wrong. I needed to file a
menaje de casa, the paperwork that
allows holders of the FM2 or FM3 visas
(and Mexican nationals meeting certain
conditions) a one-time exemption for a
1. Plan ahead! Check with
consulate on time required
to process your request.
2. Have passport and
Mexican visa (FM2 or FM3)
ready before beginning petition. Visa must be within
6 months of issue.
3. Confirm preferred
menaje format.
4. Don’t close boxes
before everything is listed.
Note all electronics’ specifications (make, model, serial number, year of manu-
duty-free transport of used (at least 6
months old) household belongings.
I went ahead, the boxes stayed behind, and the storage charges mounted.
From Mexico, I applied for my FM2.
I was 9 months pregnant by the time it
was issued so the mandatory appearance
to deliver my inventory list at the consulate in New York was out of the question.
Luckily I could file power of attorney; my
Mom went in my stead.
Menaje down… customs letters still
at-large? This last detail had simply
fallen through the cracks – it’s strangely
absent from the consular website. My
movers required a quartet of letters,
addressed to customs officials, signed
by me. The letters put a value on my
shipment, declared that my belongings
included no illegal merchandise, and
agreed that my menaje would be exported from Mexico if ever I moved out of
the country.
Finally, my boxes were loaded into a
truck and began their journey south.
I gave birth just four days before the
movers arrived. A bit dazed, I held my
daughter as they filed through the front
door with 157 boxes of clothes hangers,
books and aluminum foil.
Six months later, the furniture remains un-upholstered, and I’m still not
entirely unpacked. Ni modo, as they say.
Plenty of time for that. I won’t be reversing a menaje anytime soon. ❚
facture) and describe large
furniture.
5. Remember: “Used” =
six-months-old, or more.
6. Prepare all copies and
signed pages before you
go to the consulate. You’ll
need $127 USD (cash or
bank check).
7. Take the approved inventory list to movers, or
whoever will arrive at aduanas-customs with the
shipment.
8. Provide movers with
letters required by customs:
A) declaration giving effective power of attorney to the
moving company; B) declaration of value; C) declaration that all merchandise is
used, for personal use, that
the shipment contains no
illegal merchandise; and D)
that you will repatriate the
menaje when/if your visa is
to expire.
9. Expect that every box
will be opened by customs
officials.
On June 19th, 2007,
Inside México and Tierra de Vinos hosted a
wine tasting.
A wonderful time was
had by all.
Where
were
you?
Don’t miss out. Sign up
for The Tip and once a
week we’ll recommend
something fun, tasty,
cool or interesting.
www.insidemex.com
6/26/07 10:55:25 PM
Saving the
environment
in the DF
“One battery at a time”
B y T ara F itz G erald P hoto by L uz M ontero
T
he next time you see one of
the tourist information and
guide columns along the
street in Mexico City, take a closer
look. There may be more to it than
meets the eye.
The Mexico City government’s
program Manejo Responsable de
Pilas (responsible management of
batteries), which was launched in
February this year, has adapted
many of these columns to serve as
containers where people can deposit their used batteries for recycling.
“We realized that the publicity
posts in the city could be adapted
to be used as containers rather than
just for commercials,” Rosalynn
Herrera, coordinator of communication and training at the Department of Environmental Education in
Mexico City, told Inside México in
an interview. “And that this would
give people in the city a viable option for recycling at least one type
of waste.”
According to information distributed by the Department for Environmental Education, the principal
components contained in batteries
-- mercury, cadmium, nickel and
magnesium -- are considered to be
toxic because of the harmful effects
they can have both on the environment and on people’s health.
If exposed to the elements, bat-
teries oxidize and produce liquids
and gases that contaminate water,
earth and air. The same thing happens when they are incinerated.
For example, 11 button batteries,
such as those that are used in
watches, can contaminate up to
6.5 million litres of water.
There are currently some 151
of these containers in place in
the Delegaciones of Coyoacan,
Cuauhtemoc, Miguel Hidalgo and
Benito Juarez. And about 130 more
are scheduled to be in place in the
next month.
“Since the program started in
February almost 2.9 tons of batteries have been deposited, and
the amount is increasing month
on month,” Ms. Herrera said. “We
now have people calling up to ask
where their nearest container is
and others asking why their municipality is not part of the program yet.”
People are asked to cover the
batteries’ poles (the ends) with
masking tape before depositing
them in the containers to make sure
they are isolated and to avoid leaks.
Each container, which has a
capacity for five kilograms of batteries, is emptied every 72 hours by
Imagenes y Muebles Urbanos, the
company running the program. They
also make sure the containers are
not vandalized or covered in graffiti.
When they are emptied the
battery waste is initially taken to a
What can I
do to help?
• Always use rechargeable batteries (one
rechargeable battery is
equivalent to at least 300
disposable batteries)
• Choose appliances that
are energy-efficient and
do not require batteries
• Never open, perforate
or burn batteries
• Take batteries out of
appliances when they
are not in use
• Deposit them exclusively in the recycling
containers established
for this purpose
• Some cell phone and
computer batteries
now have their own
recuperation programs – check with
the manufacturers
storage center in Naucalpan. From
there they are transported to a
plant in Irapuato, Guanajuato for
the actual recycling process.
There, the batteries are separated and broken down into their various parts and 100% of the material
is used in the recycling process.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have
the resources to conduct a huge,
glossy campaign with TV commer-
-You can deposit AA,
AAA, C, D, CR and square
batteries, as well as
cell phone and button
batteries in the specified
containers
-Used batteries should be
deposited in the containers with their poles protected by adhesive tape
For more information call
Mexico City’s Department of Environmental
Education on:
(55) 2615-3311
cials like a company such as CocaCola might be able to do.”
“[But] the program is being promoted through information posted
on the containers and on bus stops,
and information postcards are being
distributed to cafes, restaurants
and bookshops, plus we have also
put out a few information spots and
interviews on the radio,” Ms Herrera said. ❚
6/26/07 10:55:28 PM
Where
TO PICK UP YOUR FREE
COPY OF
MR
AT MORE THAN 225
POINTS AROUND THE
COUNTRY!
Altavista Giornale Caffé • Santa Fe Café Bosques de Las Lomas Sante Fe Café Centro Santa
Fe Café • Museo de Arte Popular • Museo Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Mexicanos • Gran Melia
Hotel • Hotel Ritz • Fiesta Americana Reforma • Sheraton Centro
• Italian Coffee Company • Grand
Hotel Ciudad de México Holiday Inn Zócalo Condesa Condesa
DF • Libreria Rosario Castellanos •
Elodia y Sus Bondades • Pata Negra • St. Patrick’s Pub • Malafama
• Agapi Mu • Bistrot Continental •
Bistrot Mosaico •Café La Gloria • Capicua • Don Keso • El 10 •
Ligaya • Mibong • Orquideas • Parrillada Uruguaya • Don Asado • Rojo Bistrot • Segundo Paso • Frutos
Prohibidos y Otros Placeres • La Buena
Tierra •Coffee Shop • El Hijo del Santo • La Esquina del Te • Piccolo Toscano Café • The Village Café • 5
L-Mento • Artefacto • Colectivo 7 • El Milagrito • Modifica • Black
Horse • Cinna Bar • El Mitote • El Jamil •
La Selva Café • Barracuda Diner Nuvo Sushi • American Legion • Pajaros en el Alambre • Hivisa Viajes Coyoacán Hotel Real del Sur Cuauhtémoc Marquis Reforma • Sheraton
Maria Isabel • British Embassy • Japanese
Embassy • US Embassy Guadalupe Inn Nacional Financiera • The Italian Coffee Company Héroes de Padiema
Camino Real Pedregal Insurgentes The Italian Coffee Company
Interlomas Giornale Caffé Jardines del Pedregal Santa Fe Café Jardines en la Montaña
Hotel Royal Pedregal Juárez Mission Reforma Ciudad de
Mexico • Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin • Italian Coffee Plaza
La Escalera Las
Americas Hotel y Centro de Negocios Torre Lindavista • The American School Lomas
de Chapultepec
The American Benevolent Society • Santa Fe Café • Coldwell Banker
Napoles
Hotel
Beverly • Hotel
Residencial Rochester
Navarte • The Italian Coffee Company Palmas
Giornale
Caffé
Parques del Pedregal Colegio de Ingenieros Civiles de México Polanco Hotel Casa
Vieja • Hotel Residencial Polanco
• Hotel W • JW Marriott
Hotel • Centro Educativo MultidisciplinarioUNAM • L’Actualite
Internationale •
Estetica Polanco • The
Break • Adonis • Bellaria • Chez Wok •Como •
Entrevinos • Fishers • Izote • La Valentina • L’Olivier • Lox • MP
• Café Bistro • Non Solo Pasta •Restaurante
Spuntino • Thai Gardens •Tori Tori •
Villa Maria • Area Bar and
Terrace • Bua • Gendarmeria de Don Quintin
• Karisma • Cantina Camino Real •
Riedel Wine Bar • Artemis • Fiesta Americana • Grand Chapultepec •
French Embassy • German Embassy
• New Zealand Embassy •
Prados de la Montana • The Westhill Institute
Roma Casa Lamm • Café de Carlo
• Casa de la Condesa • La
Casona • Alliant University • Kong San Ángel Bazar del Sábado • San Pedro
de los Pinos •Holiday Inn
• Trade Center San Rafael Hotel Stella Maris
Santa Cruz Atoyac Hotel Royal
Plaza • Santa Fe Cámara
Mexicano-Alemana de Comercio e Industria • Centro de Investigación
y Docencia Económicas •
Giornale Caffé • Bistrot Mosaico • Brássica
• Cabo Blanco • El Buen Bife
• Antonella Bread & Co.
• La Selva Café• La Buena Tierra • Ruben’s
Hamburgers • Moshi Moshi
• The Anglo • Sheraton
Suites Santa Fe • San Jeronimo Lídice Pedregal Palace • Tabacalera
Tacubaya La Selva Café •
Radisson Hotel • Flamingos Tlalpan La Selva
Café Vista Hermosa Mexico City International Airport • Santa Fe Café • Hilton • Camino Real
• Ramada • Fiesta Inn
Also in: Puerto Vallarta •
Merida • Oaxaca • Monterrey • Puerto Morelos • Cancun • Guadalajara • Cuernavaca • San
Miguel de Allende • Tepoztlan • Los Cabos
• Ensenada
6/26/07 7:09:38 PM
Shari Dawn Rettig
(1941-2007)
B y C atherine D unn
P hoto C ourtesy of G ladys R odríguez
S
hari was kind, good-hearted and unbelievably tolerant of personality quirks.
It made her a kind of “den
mother” as the late Joe
Nash used to describe her, to the lost,
the loony, and the lonesome.
–Friend Debra Anthony, from
a blog remembering Shari Dawn
Rettig.
Her friends knew the Christmas
party would be at Shari’s house and
that she would have the turkey and
the stuffing ready. In April they
would dye Easter eggs together. They
knew she would be available to chat
online, well into the pre-dawn hours.
And she always knew exactly what to
say, even if it was to “mind your own
business.”
She was the kind of friend –loyal
and fearless– who would take turns
sleeping in your car to keep it from
being stolen.
Shari Dawn Rettig, newswoman,
confidante, straight-shooter, died in
Mexico City on May 21 after she had
been admitted to the hospital with a
lung condition. She was 66.
She was born and raised in Ft.
Worth, Texas where she grew up
with her doting little sister, Dianne.
She went away to Washington, DC
for college, and, afterwards, took a
job as a loan teller in a bank, said
her sister, because the building was
air-conditioned.
Then in the late 1960’s, or early “She spoke and everybody listened,” said friend Gladys Rodríguez,
1970’s, Shari and her pal Dolores “even if she used broken Spanish she got her message through and
Anne Smith quit their jobs in Wash- everyone understood.”
ington, jumped in a car with their
dogs and took off. They were cruising
the Texas coast after Christmas. It
Gladys Rodríguez said. She believed
Shari’s career as a journalist
was growing cold; dust and ice storms
in the Virgin of Guadalupe, and sevspanned nearly the entire library of
on the Texas panhandle blocked the
eral times walked pilgrimages to the
English-language publications based
way to California. So they drove
Basílica, handing out money to needy
in Mexico City. At The News she besouth into the Sierra Madres.
people she passed along the way. She
came a managing editor, and when
They had no place they had to be.
addressed the city’s idiosyncrasies
she left there, she worked at The
“We were free,” Dolores Anne said.
with practicality. For example, she
Sun, The Mexico City Times, and
Mexico and Shari suited each othhung flags out her window to signal
then took the helm of El Universal’s
er. She loved earthquakes, “thought
to the gas man and the water man if
English section called The Journal.
they were a joyride”, her friend
she needed them to stop by.
When El Universal scratched plans to
launch The Journal as a full-fledged
daily, Shari founded a news website
about Mexico called Mr.News.Mx
(www.mrnewsmx.com).
When it launched in 1999, people
in Mexico were asking “What’s a
banner? What’s a button?,” recalled
Gladys Rodríguez, who was also
Shari’s business associate.
A lthough the business never
brought commercial success, Shari
tended it until she entered the hospital. Radios hummed throughout
her house, her ears to the world. She
culled headlines about her adopted
country from the Web.
A night owl, Shari’s friends knew
not to bother her from 9 to 10 pm every evening. That hour was set aside
for her sister; the two would sign
onto messenger and play electronic
games of chess, checkers, poker and
billiards. They also rehashed their
childhoods, and spent years moving
through the past until they caught
up to the present. “We cleared things
up, we talked, we joked, we played,”
said Dianne Brocker, who lives in
Ft. Worth. “We did everything like
we were 9-years-old again.”
Since Shari died, decades –worth
of friends have emailed her sister
and brother-in-law, written about
her in the newspaper, and on the
blog established in her memory,
recalling her patience, her wry
humor, the sweatpants she wore
around the house.
Dolores Anne, who lives in Ohio,
has wondered who she’ll tell things
to now at the end of the day.
“ T here are more than a few
people who considered her their best
friend,” Dolores Anne said. “I don’t
know who she considered her best
friend, but I know she was my best
friend.” ❚
A memorial service was held for
Shari Rettig May 24 by the American Benevolent Society at Union
Church. Her ashes will be buried in
East Texas.
pag. 30-31.indd 30
6/27/07 12:51:00 AM
Putting out the News,
Part II
Up, down, over, and out…
B y J imm B udd
E
ditor’s Note: For
several months,
there have been
rumors that The
News, the former English language newspaper published by Novedades, may be relaunched
sometime this year. With this
in mind, we asked one of the
paper’s former editors, Jimm
Budd, to write some reminiscences of his time there. His
first installment appeared
in the May issue of Inside
México. If you missed it, you
can find it on our website:
www.insidemex.com.
The notables I met were
warm in their praise of The
News. They lauded its compact size and how, by reading it, they could keep up
with all that was happening
in the world. In the 1960s,
there was no satellite television, much less anything like
the Internet. For the monolingual, our daily was a lifeline to the outside would.
Almost everyone else I
met on my rounds criticized
The News. The biggest complaint was the poor delivery
service to subscribers. Also I
learned that the answers to
our crossword puzzles were
not printed when they were
supposed to be and that the
comic strips were not appearing in proper sequence.
It is no surprise that into
this vacuum, competition
roared forth in the form of
the Mexico City Times.
The News was a tabloid,
which meant it was easy to
read. The Times appeared
the size of a “real” newspaper and it’s appearance had
a startling effect on our parent company. Ramón Beteta,
the editor-in-chief and former X minister, whom few
of us ever had seen, called
us into a meeting to deliver
a motivational speech and
announce that salaries were
being increased.
Beteta, tall, trim and athletic, reportedly had been
on the short list to follow
{Miguel} Aleman into the
presidency. He ended up as
ambassador to Italy instead.
As our editor-in-chief, he was
clearly – to those who could
see such things -- Aleman’s
representative on the paper.
Not that he was any flunky.
He had turned Novedades
into one of Mexico’s most
powerful voices, and now
was ready to do that with
The News as well.
Thanks to the appearance
of The Times, I found myself
named deputy editor.
A man named Howard
Taylor, trim and dapper as
Walter Pigeon, taught us
how to redesign our pages,
emphasizing ample white
space, large photographs
and snappy headlines.
Far greater impact was
made by Jim Oliver, who, as
head of the Grant Advertising Agency office in Mexico,
had conducted some sort of
survey. Oliver spoke with the
publisher and the publisher’s
son, with the general manager and the editor-in-chief.
The News, he declared, had
the potential for becoming
the most influential daily in
the country.
Bill Shanahan, the editor,
was the skeptic. He had been
around longer than Ramon
Beteta and was willing to bet
the middle-aged Beteta was
just biding his time, keeping
in the public eye while waiting to get back into politics.
With that, Novedades would
return to blandness, taking
The News with it.
Unlike his superiors, Bill
was unconcerned about our
competition. “We have the
best comics and the best
columns,” he told me once.
“People may buy The Times
to see what it looks like, but
they are not going to cancel
their subscriptions with us.”
I suspected they might if The
Times were delivered earlier.
It never was.
Meanwhile, my boss was
more than happy to delegate
more and more responsibility to me. He would drop by
the office about midday, then
head off to check on his race
horses. “If anything comes
up, knock it down,” he’d say.
One midday, Shanahan
lingered in his office longer
than usual. He called me in
and asked that I shut the
door. He handed me a cigar.
“I’m about to start peddling drugs,” he announced.
“A l l t h i s w i l l s o o n b e
yours.”
Merck was hiring Bill
Shanahan to be their public relations vice president
for Latin America.
“So you’ll be moving up,”
Bill said. “Try not to take it
too hard.”
T he T imes died after
two years. Foolishly, I went
personally to announce this
triumph to the family patriarch Don Romulo O’Farrill.
He was a sharp old man,
always pleasant, and he
extended his congratulations. Unlike his son and
Beteta, however, he had no
command of English. But
I understood his Spanish
well enough. With the competition gone, he could begin
trimming our staff.
My own downfall came
with the rise of Luis Echeverria. The assistant press
secretary to the new president was the first to warn
me we needed to tread carefully with what we printed.
Young and foolish, I paid
scant heed. In March, after Echeverria had served
his first 100 days in office,
Junior O’Farrill summoned
me one last time. The president’s office, he said quietly,
almost apologetically, had
asked that I be replaced.
I n 2 0 0 3 , N o v e d ad e s
ceased publication. So did
The News. ❚
30-31.indd 31
6/27/07 11:22:47 AM
6/27/07 9:07:28 PM

REFORMA Mexico`s Main Street

Transcription

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