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mexico 
Wed Mar 17, 2010 at 06:08:44 PDT
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
Listen to the classic "Canción Mixteca," sung in Spanish by the Mexican supergroup Los Tigres del Norte, accompanied by [Irish] accordion, bajo sexto, tin whistle and uilleann pipes.
"How far I am from the land where I was born! Immense longing invades my thoughts, and when I see myself as alone and sad as a leaf in the wind, I want to cry. I want to die of sorrow."
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Wed Feb 24, 2010 at 20:08:48 PST
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
Crossposted at Daily Kos
"Strike while the iron is hot."
"Make hay while the sun shines."
"Take time by the forelock."
Or, as they say it in French, "Il faut battre le fer pendant qu'il est chaud."
All are time-tested phrases in the English and French languages amounting to the same thing: the time to act and take advantage is now. For timing is everything in peace, love, politics, and war. Once the opportunity slips by, one may never get the chance again. Simply put: use it or lose it.
Patrick Corrigan, Toronto Star, Buy this cartoon
Why the urgency? What is this terrific opportunity that's been given to us and why must we act upon it right now?
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Wed Nov 25, 2009 at 20:52:39 PST
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200 Mayan Peasants Arrested for Blocking Road in Mexico
Latin American Herald Tribune
November 25, 2009
CANCUN - More than 200 Mayan peasants were arrested during a clash with police who tried to prevent them from blocking the highway between the southeastern Mexican cities of Chetumal and Cancun, officials said.
About 20 peasants sustained minor injuries and a police officer underwent surgery for a head injury suffered in Tuesday's clash, Quintana Roo state Deputy Public Safety Secretary Didier Vazquez said.
&&&
The peasants blocked the highway to demand payment of insurance and subsidies for crops lost in the drought affecting the region.
The insurance company has refused to pay claims for lost crops and Quintana Roo's government has offered to cover only 50 percent of losses, or some 450 pesos (about $34) per hectare affected by the drought.
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Sat Nov 21, 2009 at 06:47:32 PST
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
A Lionfish
Some bad news from underwater in the Caribbean. Indo-Pacific Lionfish have apparently been spotted on the Mayan Riviera, the stretch of coast from Cancun in the north to Tulum in the south, of Quintana Roo, Mexico, and throughout much of the rest of the Caribbean. These fish don't belong there. It's not their natural habitat, and they're predators to most other reef species. They are voracious. And to top it off, their spines are also toxic to humans.
Let's go for a swim.
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Tue Nov 17, 2009 at 16:16:47 PST
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(midnight. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Tulum, Mexico -- This is a friend of mine. Young Mexican beach dog. Apparently, she has an owner who appreciates her and feeds her. Not as much as gringo dogs, but enough. She's been hanging around for about a week, just visiting.
Carlos Fuentes, Mexican writer and laureate, says in his novel The Years With Laura Diaz, that Mexican dogs look like this because of the Mexican Revolution. Landowners with pure bred dogs, dogs with pedigrees, had to let their dogs go, had to unchain them, when they fled the revolution, or got thrown off their haciendas, or lost all of their possessions. The dogs had their own caste system, obviously, but it wasn't the same one as people in Mexico had at that time. Dogs accept and live with their own system and its hierarchy. After the Revolution, the dogs created this new, revolutionary species. Mexican beach dog. My friend above is a wonderful example.
This is just one of the many reasons why I believe in dog. History might be written by the winners. Yes. But in the end, dog survives.
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Sun Oct 04, 2009 at 20:03:18 PDT
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I love my Mexico and the culture which is hard to understand at best. I live in a small village about two kilometers from the beach, and when I say small, trust me. I moved from the local tourist beach town in June and I have to admit that I love it here. It is very quiet and I am the only gringa here. I didn't move to Mexico to join the Rotary and hang with the other gringos. It seems like they are doing a fraud job on people and really not helping except to make us another US or Canada.
I have lived in this wonderful place for seven years now, and will never return to the US.
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Mon Jul 06, 2009 at 15:34:34 PDT
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
Today I read that many poor people from Honduras have been fleeing the country, passing through Guatemala, and are landing in shelters in Oaxaca, Mexico:
The military coup in Honduras is providing an unexpected test of Mexico's immigration and refugee policies. On Friday, July 3, dozens of Honduran nationals arrived at a church-run migrant shelter in the southern state of Oaxaca seeking refugee status because of the political situation in their country.
Alejandro Solaline Guerra, spokesman for the Mexican Episcopal Conference, said a group of Hondurans sought assistance at the House of Mercy in Ciudad Ixtepec on the Tehuantepec Peninsula. The migrant advocate said the bishops' organization will contact the National Migration Institute to request refugee status for the Hondurans under international law.
"Migrants from a country in a state of war should not be denied refugee status," Solaline declared.
The Honduran political crisis could aggravate an already conflictive situation in Mexico's southern border region. Despite the international economic crisis, thousands of Central Americans and other Latin migrants continue to cross the country's southern border en route to the United States. Along the way, migrants remain a favorite target of corrupt Mexican officials and bands of organized criminals. source.
I think that as the golpe de estado continues in Honduras and as the instability and repression grow, and the economy continues to be disrupted, more and more poor Hondurans will have to pick up and leave, fleeing across Guatemala and into Mexico.
I suspect that those who are running shelters all along the well traveled route from Honduras and across southern Mexico could help these refugees if they had money to do so.
That's where I need help. El Hogar de Misericordia en Ixtapa does not have a web site. La Conferencia del Episcopado Mexicano has a site, but no way to donate. I don't find on line anywhere to donate to support these refugees on their journey away from Honduras and into Mexico, though I am well aware that there are shelters along the route.
Long story short: I need your help to find a way to get funds to those who are helping the refugees from Honduras who arrive in Mexico.
This seems particularly important to me. Those fleeing Honduras are preyed on by gangs like the Mara Salvatrucha and their rivals, by coyotes, by the police. Their journey is precarious even when it is motivated purely by economics. And now, I fear the golpe de estado and the lockdown in Honduras and Honduras's economic isolation will drive even more poor people from their homes into the snares set by waiting gangs and police. The shelters are essential to protect these refugees, to feed them, to give them an opportunity to stop in a safe place.
It would be a service to provide financial help to the shelters. The question, dear Dharmanics, is how we can do that. I ask your assistance in finding a way.
h/t to Mariachi Mama for the Mexidata article
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Tue Apr 07, 2009 at 14:48:42 PDT
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An off hand comment, intended as infantile bathroom humor by a male coworker:
"Ah, man. My coat's going to smell like a sewer. Luis is in the bathroom taking a dump, and he always stinks it up."
I cringed a little, grossed out, but keeping my work game face on said, "Luis partied last night, maybe too much tipping.." making the universal glass tipping motion toward him.
"No," he said straight faced. "Too much beans and salsa, you know all that Mexican food."
I gave him that sidelong look, you know the one I mean, that long suffering look of Mothers everywhere for when their kids say really stupid shit. Not irritated so much as tired.
"Luis isn't Mexican. He is Venezuelan."
He grinned his goofy apologetic grin, shrugged and smiled at his own stupidity, "Venezuela, Mexico, like I would know the difference, they're all the same to me. They all speak Spanish."
He walked away too quickly in his lolling gate, almost bouncing like a cartoon character, for me to point out the very obvious. More on that later.
Jesus, it almost tied together my two separate essays I have on hold.
The lack of cultural and geographic understanding and why tribal pure states will no longer work. Sounds strange but the source is the same. Intentional ignorance.
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Sun Mar 22, 2009 at 18:24:14 PDT
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(noon. - promoted by ek hornbeck)
Also posted at Daily Kos and Invictus
The Sunday Weekly Torture "Round-up" is intended to be a new regular feature at Daily Kos, capturing stories on the ongoing torture scandal, especially those that might otherwise escape notice. At the same time, we will strive to present an overview of important new developments in the drive to hold the U.S. government responsible for its war crimes, in addition to covering stories concerning torture from other countries, as time and space permit. (Alas, the U.S. has no monopoly on this hideous practice.)
The editors for the WTR are myself, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, and Meteor Blades and we will rotate each week. Interesting or important news or tips concerning torture or civil liberties issues bearing upon it can be emailed to any of these individuals.
There were many new developments this week: the CIA announced it would withhold a list describing 1000s of documents related to the destruction of videotapes depicting torture; an ex-Bush administration official told of administration indifference to evidence of innocence for the great bulk of "enemy combatants"; a major lawsuit against Pentagon contractors accused of torture was allowed to proceed; a "released" Guantanamo hunger striker was refused more humane prison conditions, and more.
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Sun Jan 18, 2009 at 08:33:04 PST
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cross-posted from The Dream Antilles
The Coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico, between Bahia Soliman and Tankah
In 1958, Michel Peissel, who at age 21 was about to enter Harvard Business School, made a solo journey on foot from what would eventually become Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico, down the Caribbean Coast to Belize, which he described in his book, The Lost World Of Quintana Roo.
Join me in this Lost World.
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Mon Nov 24, 2008 at 09:15:31 PST
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
cross-posted from The Dream Antilles
This is absolutely infuriating. The New York Times reports on the struggle of former Mexican farm workers, some in the 80's and 90's, to obtain refunds from the Mexican Government of 10% of their wages that were withheld when they worked in the US under the bracero program:
FRESNO, Calif. - Here comes Abraham Franco now, 86 years old, skin leathery and bronzed from decades of work in the fields, slowly bending his small but sturdy frame into a metal chair at a faux wood office table at the Mexican Consulate here.
He still could not quite believe the news: Decades after working as a bracero, as thousands of Mexican guest farm workers were called in a program from 1942 to 1964, the Mexican government had recently agreed to a one-time payment, $3,500, of long overdue withheld wages.
The braceros are fading fast, some pushing or over 90, and are ever reliant on family and friends to get by.
Join me in the lettuce fields with Sr. Franco.
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Sun Nov 23, 2008 at 06:58:59 PST
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
This essay is cross-posted from dKos and The Dream Antilles
The Beach in Bahia Soliman
Maybe this is the beginning of another love story. People come from all over the world to the Mayan Riviera in Mexico as tourists, fall in love with it, and return over and over and over again. The Mayan Riviera is the area south of Cancun, Mexico, and north of Tulum, on the Caribbean. You get there by flying to Cancun. After that, you travel south on Route 307, to Playa del Carmen, and then Akumal, and Puerto Aventuras, past Xel-Ha and on to Tulum. You can make the trip by rental car, bus, taxi, or collectivo.
Join me on the beach.
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Sun Oct 12, 2008 at 19:00:00 PDT
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Picture this: Thousands of warriors, clad in jaguar skins and the feathers of birds of paradise, armed with atlatls and obsidian-studded clubs, move steadily through a rainforest toward a distant cluster of pyramids and temples. Like every warrior on the eve of every battle in all of human history, they wonder if they will survive the coming fight. Some of them probably think about the circumstances that had brought on the war in which they have found their generation cast, and perhaps a few of them even consider the part they are playing in the greater socio-cultural drama unfolding in northern Guatemala in the 7th century CE.
Join me, if you will, in the Cave of the Moonbat, where tonight's historiorant centers around those quarrelsome city-states of the Classical Maya. On this Columbus Day (a/k/a 7 Muluc 12 Yax), I invite you to take a break from Republican vileness and winking wannabe-veeps, and join me for a tale of the first Star Wars - a struggle between ancient Mesoamerican superpowers punctuated by some very recognizable story lines and subplots...
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Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 15:29:18 PDT
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A story that has been bubbling up in Mexico finally has made its way back to the surface in the U.S. news. The New York Times reports State oil industry's future sets off tussle in Mexico.
A bitter debate over what to do about Mexico's ailing state oil monopoly has dominated national politics here in recent weeks, tapping strong emotions on both sides and resurrecting the political fortunes of the leftist leader who narrowly lost the 2006 presidential election.
The corporate framing is immediate in the opening graph of the story, but that's not unsurprising from the NY Times. What is surprising is that normally stories from Mexico do not often make the news in the United States. This story is different, because: "At stake in the debate is not only the future of the Mexican economy but also the supply of oil to the United States." Even news from Mexico is framed by the interests of the United States. As of 2007, Mexico still had an estimated 12.4 billion barrels of untapped oil reserves, or 10 percent of the world's crude, according to the U.S. Energy Department.
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Tue Apr 01, 2008 at 14:03:31 PDT
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I see Magnifico caught this story in Four at Four, but tossing this post out there for depth's sake.
We have to break the law in order to save it.
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration will use its authority to bypass more than 30 laws and regulations in an effort to finish building 670 miles of fence along the southwest U.S. border by the end of this year, federal officials said Tuesday.
Invoking the two legal waivers - which Congress authorized - will cut through bureaucratic red tape and sidestep environmental laws that currently stand in the way of the Homeland Security Department building 267 miles of fencing in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, according to officials familiar with the plan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly about it.
More below the fold...
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Wed Mar 12, 2008 at 16:04:24 PDT
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( - promoted by buhdydharma )
cross posted from The Dream Antilles
The Si'an Kaan Bio-reserve is 1.3 million acres of protected land in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico, about 2 hours south of Cancun, near Tulum. "Sian Ka'an" is translated from Mayan as "where the sky is born" or "gift from the sky". I was there just a few days ago.
Please join me in paradise.
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Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 18:30:49 PST
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Cross-posted at dKos.
"We are a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants," Barack Obama has frequently said on the campaign trail and in debates. I could not agree more. However, listening to the debate in Austin the other night through my ex-pat lenses, I found myself mildly frustrated with the discussion of the immigration issue. Solving the legal and security issues is important, but what about the larger issue of why the United States continues to have such a serious illegal immigration problem in the first place?
After 10 years of increases in border patrols, partial walls, higher budgets, and more advanced sensor technology, shouldn't we have seen some better results? Maybe we would have, if the security measures were actually the answer to the root cause of immigration. But they aren't.
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Fri Feb 01, 2008 at 11:40:56 PST
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The Megamarch Yesterday In Mexico City
Chanting "Sin maiz, No hay pais" (Without Corn, the country doesn't exist), Mexican farmers by the tens of thousands demonstrated in Mexico City against NAFTA.
Join me across the Rio Grande.
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Sun Jan 20, 2008 at 15:30:17 PST
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This is a review of Nick Henck's book on Sup Marcos, the military leader of the EZLN, the subversive movement in Mexico.
(Photo from the account of Whodisan215)
(Crossposted at Big Orange)
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Thu Jan 17, 2008 at 18:36:31 PST
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Is the Associated Press another propaganda outlet for US wingnuts who justify state killing and don't recognize Mexico's sovereignty? Apparently. Tonight AP has a story that Mexico thwarts US death penalty cases because Mexico won't extradite US fugitives unless the US signs on the dotted line that it will not execute them. This isn't news. Mexico's policy has been in place for thirty (30) years.
Well, maybe demanding an assurance that the extradited person won't be killed is unusual? It isn't.
Other countries, including France and Canada, also demand such "death assurances" [that the extradited person won't be executed]. But the problem is more common with Mexico, since it is often a quick drive from the crime scene for a large portion of the United States. /snip
The Justice Department said death assurances from foreign countries are fairly common, but it had no immediate numbers. State Department officials said Mexico extradited 73 suspects to the U.S. in 2007. Most were wanted on drug or murder charges.
No, the point of the story isn't the policy. It's US exceptionalism and how Mexico should cave in to US barbarism and the death penalty and return fugitives slaves for execution:
"We find it extremely disturbing that the Mexican government would dictate to us, in Arizona, how we would enforce our laws at the same time they are complaining about our immigration laws," said Barnett Lotstein, special assistant to the prosecutor in Maricopa County, Ariz., which includes Phoenix.
"Even in the most egregious cases, the Mexican authorities say, `No way,' and that's not justice. That's an interference of Mexican authorities in our judicial process in Arizona." /snip
"If you can get to Mexico - if you have the means - it's a way of escaping the death penalty," said Issac Unah, a University of North Carolina political science professor. /snip
John Walsh, host of TV's long-running "America's Most Wanted," ... said the delays and death-penalty compromises needed to get fugitives returned can be heartbreaking for victims' families
"It's not about revenge. It's not so much about closure. It's about justice," he said.
Lotstein, the prosecutor's assistant in Phoenix, said the county has agreed to drop the death penalty in a number of cases: "The option we have is absolutely no justice, or partial justice."
Is the point of the article that US justice is somehow were synonymous with state killing? Is the point of the article that Mexico is somehow obstructing US state killing?
No. Those are incidental points. The real point, the Britney Spears size point of the article is that the Marine who allegedly killed a pregnant Marine may have fled to Mexico after the crime and now prosecutors may have to agree not to kill him in exchange for having him returned to the US. I'm sorry. But this doesn't seem to me to be unfair. Not in the slightest.
What would be unfair is allowing this alleged killer, or for that matter anyone else, to be executed.
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Reform Immigration -
March for America
Sunday, March 21
March on Washington
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