The Country Boys Truck, selling traditional Puebla fare, wins best street food in New York City

No stranger to New York City street food, I thought this truck was up on West 79th Street.

No matter though, if you’re out in the neighborhood of the Red Hook Ball Fields, you can enjoy the best food in the streets of New York City.

This year’s Vendy Award went to Fernando and Yolanda Martinez who took first place this past  Saturday in a ceremony at the Queens Museum of Art.

Selling for about 6 dollars a lunch, according to the video below you can get huaraches, quesadillas, sopes, and certainly – some tacos. Nice to see good food returning to the US.

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Hotel Coahuila and San Esteban Church, by Edward Hopper, from the facebook collection of Federico Jordan

I knew there was something familiar in Mexico’s almost impenetrable sunlight.

Sometimes the sun seems to just crash down onto Mexico like the gold and bronze hoard of Moctezuma, it can be alienating – foreign – even disquieting.

But in that disquiet – of course – there can also be a great tranquil peace. Desert dwellers know this, but anyone who confronts the magnitude of nature truly and honestly should know it also.

New England – manicured and parceled and sub-divided – also has its harsh Atlantic glare. And that’s the light we’re used to seeing in Edward Hopper – Hopper whose human figures play a secondary role to a light that crashes in and bewilders before it rests. It rests on a line that Hopper seems to have carved with a wavering palette knife, suddenly drawn firm across a soft core of wax.

I stumbled onto these pictures from Hopper’s 1940s trip to Saltillo, by chance, at the Digital Spatter blog. And I’m glad I did. In the back and forth between the alien and the familiar – it is always a great comfort to imagine that the same light shines down on all of us. [Thanks to Federico Jordan for posting them, and to Digital Spatter for pointing them out.]

Here’s one more:

Saltillo's roofs, from Guajardo's roof. Click the image for more.

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The good folks at Laloncheria.com – a new Spanish Language Mexico news portal – asked me to post the occasional blog entry on US Politics – in English – for a Mexican audience. It’s actually a topic I try to avoid – the commentators in Mexico writing about US politics already do a very good job. The Mex-Files, From Xico and Expat Ruminations, among a few others, all deserve my sincerest respect for displaying calm, thoughtful insight week after week. Maybe I’ve learned more – from being with and around Mexican people – about how to deal with the US – and what to think of it – than I can really adequately expound upon. But it is what I try to do. If you’re still interested in my US politics rant, it’s here.

peyote cactus, from Mexico Mystic's Blog

• Much more fun though is Mexico Mystics exploration of Hallucinogens of Mexico: “The five major halucinogenic plants that were used in Aztec times were mushrooms, peyote, morning glory seeds, Toloache (Datura) and tobacco.
• Pretty comprehensive analysis of what Mexico is doing to greenify itself – Mexico may even be a model for other developing nations… “As Mexico continues to implement domestic-emission reductions programs, including its low-carbon bus rapid transit (BRT) and fluorescent-for-incandescent light bulb swap programs, other nations might take notice and follow suit.” See the analysis from the Council of Hemispheric Affairs, for a run down on the programs being pursued at the federal level.

• 

  The Anzalduas International Bridge (from the Monitor.com)

  If you’re driving down, Mexico Premier has an extended post on the opening of “the Anzalduas International Bridge set to open in October 2009 and connecting Mission, Texas (part of the larger McAllen MSA), to Reynosa, Mexico.”

• And did you miss this Houston Chronicle article on Mexico’s Inflation rate falling for the third straight month? “Inflation will continue to decline for the rest of the year,” said Delia Paredes, an economist at Banco Santander Serfin in Mexico City. “The central bank will be cautious.”

• Lastly, Linda Watson Lauer, makes a good appeal for learning Spanish, reposted on Living in Guanajuato, after the original at Mexico-My Space.

Of course I will make mistakes as I learn. I learned my Spanish on the street as I searched for a house. I spoke to every Mexican person I came across as I walked up and down the dusty roads. They welcomed me as I struggled with “Lo se una casa por renta o vende.” It was my way of asking do you know of a house for rent or sale. The question led to meeting uncles, cousins, whole families as they all worked to help me find my little house. A single phone call would bring someone to pick us up and take us to look at a tiny casa in the Mexican area of Bucerias, or down the arroyo, or out near the jungle. No one spoke English, but they safely transported me to their home for sale, showed me around and deposited me back where I had come from. What amazing experiences I enjoyed while on that search. Even my poor Spanish was welcomed by these good people.

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Part of the reason I like doing this is because I can’t help but believe that there are a large number of Expats around who are equally enamored with Mexico and who just love holding the US and Mexico up next to each other - let the light shine through and see what’s going on.

Now Mexican Economist and Business Consultant, Jorge Flores Kelly, has devoted a whole new blog to just the subject: The Catalist; empowering the Mexican-American relationship. The name is a combination of Catalyst + Optimist, and I can’t help but to want to throw some good cheer and support his way.

Looking at Flores Kelly’s background, there seems no question he’s got the qualifications to do the job right and keep the light streaming in. Working with Pepe at eldefe.com on this and lot’s of other projects, along with my appreciation for Mexico, I’ve developed a new appreciation for the science of all those boring numbers. My own degrees were in Political Theory and later in Fine Arts – painting, sculpture and the like – so I am not actually eminently qualified – at all – for crunching numbers.

I’m going to write at some length – I got inspired – not about what it means to suddenly confront numbers, but about the angle of Mexican Living and Culture that is too frequently left out of the equation when we compare Mexico to what we call “the West.” But that, as they say, is for a subsequent post.
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Obviously anyone interested in Mexico should spend an afternoon poring over this collection of Santo Posters from the Mexican Memorabilia Website.

Another edition of everything I found over the last couple of days while avoiding other more important work.

If the whole enormous (give it a while to load completely) page of old, well sustained, Santo the wrestler posters doesn’t give you a thrill, probly nothing will. But I still have to try.

How about the idea of re-introducing wolves to the northern states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua? Canis Lupus Baileyi was almost extinct, one of the rarest land mammals on Earth (according to the California Wolf Center)but efforts to the north of the border should see more of the critters calling Mexico home.

From Outdoor News Daily there’s news that the wolves are finally being released into Mexico since the first ones were bred in captivity  in the US way back in 1978 – when literally only 5 could be caught in the wild.

Mexico has announced its intent to release captive Mexican wolves, perhaps as early as October-November 2009, in northern Mexico (in eastern Sonora and western Chihuahua). On August 7, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will brief the [Arizona Game and Fish] Commission on how this project has been developed and on the potential for post-release dispersal into southern Arizona and New Mexico.

Originally Mexican Wolves called a big section of Northwestern Mexico and SouthWestern US Territory Home. Source: The Mexican Wolf Page at BoomerWolf.com

This follows a release of the Mexican wolves in Arizona more than 10 years ago, and a very active involvement on the part of the US Public and the US authorities. According to Outdoor News Daily, the US Fish and Wildlife call for comments on how to improve the wolf re-introduction program ended up eliciting 13,598 comments - including concerns about the genetic purity and the captives wolves comfort levels in human environments. It will be interesting to see how much success can be imitated on this side of the border.

If you want to know everything there is to know AND see all the wolf pictures, MexicanWolves.org is the place to start.

In other good sustainability news though – Mexico City’s Green Roof-Tops story – is frankly too-often met by scoffs and dismissals, at least among the Chilangos that I know. Here’s the latest thing- an Inter Press Service article – about the initiative. The article concentrates on the proven success and tantalizing possibilities generated by the program’s introduction at a hospital and the local SEDUVI offices and a centro historico school, but if you’re not at all familiar with what’s going on:

The Mexico city government hopes that the more than 8,000 square metres of green roofs created so far in public buildings will serve as an example for the private sector.

For now, the city plans to ask businesses requesting construction permits to dedicate 10 to 20 percent of their rooftops to green space – in exchange for tax benefits.

Our Facebook Eldefe.com Fan Page is sustaining a full load of the Cell Phone Pics we keep snapping. You've got to become a fan of Eldefe.com on Facebook to see all of them but, hey, it's free - and sustainable.

Like I said, I think a lot of city-jaded Chilangos are a little wary of Utopian government schemes, but this one requires real effort and commitment on the part of a lot of people involved – not to mention it requires at least something of a green thumb on the part of the people working it. But it’s worth a try and really – they don’t have to re-waterproof the roof tops for 80 years!

Sustainable architecture? How about Sustainable Tourism?

The Mexico Tourism Board and other Mexicans governmental tourism entities, in conjunction with the World Heritage Alliance (WHA), Expedia, Inc. and the United Nations Foundation, have initiated an educational partnership program for Expedia representatives and members of local communities in Mexico to ensure the protection of the delicate biodiversity, while empowering the rural communities through entrepreneurship.

I can still hear my right-wing friends in the states steaming with answers to that one.  Well, maybe I can’t hear them, but I can sort of imagine. Again – reasonable, sustainable, even interesting and good.

Peter Moskos, assistant professor of law, police science and criminal justice administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the CUNY’s doctoral program in sociology, and former Baltimore City police officer.

Lastly, how about sustainable impressions of another country? Sometimes they last too long. I quite enjoyed the musings of Harvard Sociologist and ex-Baltimore Police Officer, Peter Moskos, on his trip to Mexico.

I’m always amazed how different things are in Mexico from what most Americans think things are like. Maybe things are worse up in border towns in the north. Or some of the nasty resorts. Or in the slums of Mexico City. But down south, in the Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Chiapas, and Tabasco, everything is fine. Clean. Civilized. [...]

With the recent flu problems, there is a great emphasis on hygiene. I wish I could say the same about New York City. Even many street food carts, and there are a lot of them, have hand-washing stations.

And Villahermosa, where I am now, had a horrible flood two years ago. Today everything seems fine. I dare you to go to New Orleans and say the same about the flood five years ago.

Yup – some things can be sustained, and some other things we have to work really hard at sustaining.

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(Photo source, Eleconomist.com.mx)

First, by way of disclosure, let me say that my daughter-in-law works for Aviacsa and she has really informed me as to the content of this entry.

Although it is always difficult to really say you understand what is the truth behind the news in Mexico, the recent suspension of the Aviacsa appears to me now to have been a political move designed to help other wealthy and well positioned airline owners move into the lucrative Mexico City airport.

This time the government says that the Airline owes $21 million in Air Traffic Control fees. The last time it was safety violations  – less than a month ago – but that suspension was relatively quickly overturned though no doubt it had a devastating effect – not only on Aviacsa’s reputation – but also on their bottom line.

On July 21, the SCT postponed the hearing for Avicasa in the Chamber of Deputies until August 4th and after that – who knows – but the best season of the year will have ended and children are already set to return to classes and Aviacsa will have lost out on whatever summer vacation traffic there was to be.

I can’t help but think we could use a “Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes” that is interested in really going the extra mile to keep airlines up and running, maybe providing support and playing a critical watchdog role – instead of just shutting folks down.

Photo from Las Noticas, Ya.

Aviacsa’s base is in – and the owners are all from from  – Monterrey. I don’t know if that plays into the equation.

When the airline first started out they were not a low cost airline. They were always priced at just a bit less expensive than the big two. They still gave food and free drinks, but you could save 500 to 1,000 pesos by flying with them.  Really when they started the concept of “low cost” was not even on the horizon.

“No food, no liquor, one bag” and all that we’ve come to accept as consumers has been because the airlines cried that jet fuel and other costs were killing them. Fuel prices have certainly dropped and you can now get to New york for about the same price as going to Cancun. If you want to go to Aguascalientes though, well, there are no special deals there. And a huge percentage of the country remains vastly under served or just plain priced out of competitive flying.

Employees who've run a perfectly sound airline for years have taken to the streets to try to get the planes flying again. Source: TodosSomosAVIACSA

Aviacsa employs about 3,500 people directly in Mexico and another 2,000 people indirectly through outsourcing and subcontractors.  And while the Mexican government says they want to create and keep jobs, when they shut down an airline right before Semana Santa – and then again in June at the beginning of the travel season, and then just as summer vacation season really starts – a third shut down – well I have to wonder. Remember Taesa and Aero California? Right before Christmas they got hit by the SCT.

For those of you who read Spanish the Aviacsa employees have a blog so you can read what the all of them have to say. I don’t pretend to know all the ins and outs, and the airline business is competitive but to put so many people out of work instead of allowing the normal inspection and correction procedures to function – and then to not allow then their day in court just reaffirms my sad belief that this is politics as usual.
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Mini Sumo Robots from Mexico competed to take 1st, 2nd and 3rd place at the Robogames in San Francisco. Click the image for the full story from Vice.

I finally got our links page up which was always intended as much to benefit my fellow bloggers here, as it is for you – our reader – and for the benefit of lots of unsung hero-bloggers in every corner of Mexico and beyond.

Maybe one of my most favorite of these links is to my own list of stumbles which end up on this page right here – as well as on the list that appears on the lower left of every page of this blog.  This, hopefully, can give these posts and entries and news stories a second or third chance at landing in front of the eyes of my bloggers who are always looking for something to write about. Who knows? You might enjoy them too. There is always more than one can possibly blog about.

Most quotable line from this incredible Washington Post article on the Drug War this morning:

In the interview, [Mexican Interior Minister] Gómez Mont said that to ease up now would be to sanction criminal behavior and its corrupting influence on Mexican society.

That should give one pause. It doesn’t though.

In news from better places, a mummified Indian healer woman believed to be of the extinct Opata people of Sonora was discovered in a cave in the Bavispe municipality in Sonora.

Mario Gonzalez Valenzuela, director of Sonora INAH Center informed that the body showed evidence of being tied up, gagged, placed in a mortuary sack and covered with matting as part of a ritual. Vestiges of vegetal fibers, a decorated ceramic bowl and rests (sic) of a cremated infant were found as part of the offering.

He remarked that if confirmed that the burial belongs to the Colonial period, it would be the first evidence of Opata funerary tradition, the largest ethnic group in Sonora during the 17th century.

And archaeologists in Sonora have only begun excavating the river valley that shown such promising results.

Good luck to Miriam in Temixco, Morelos. Click the image for more.

The photos from Miriam’s Blog, The World as I See It – were of course – enough for me.

Anyways, they said to really experience a town or a country is getting to know it from the grounds, by that I mean knowing it through it the normal people, the people that know the city the way it truly is. Not what a tourist is shown, which is the pretty places and fun places.

Likewise, the photos in this Examiner story on Guanajuato made me want to go back and see the way the city truly is, not just the pretty, fun places (which might leave out most of Guanajuato).

Lastly,

If you still haven’t seen the incredible blasting that Rachel Maddow gave to Pat Buchanon last week – well – you should. These are exactly the kind of facts that should be thrown repeatedly in the faces of those maintaining that racism no longer exists.

If you don’t feel like watching the video below, here are some relevant outtakes:

5:49) The idea that only white people built America is a fantasy and it should not have been maintained on this show as fact.

6:00) More than 200,000 black Americans fought for the Union in the Civil War. Thousands even fought for the Confederacy. 1.2 million African Americans served in World War 2 and, yes, they were among those who stormed the beaches of Normandy.

6:11) The Defense Department says that almost 10,000 Mexican Americans fought for the Union during the Civil War. Hundreds of thousands of Hispanics served in the armed forces during World War 2. 12 hispanics were awarded the Medal of Honor. 24 Asian Americans received the Medal of Honor for heroism in World War 2.

The idea that we still have to refute such racist arguments should – alone – prove that the argument that racism no longer exists in the United States. But alas, Pat Buchanon is still on television, Bill Kristol is still on television, Dick Cheney is still not in jail. At least Rachel Maddow is on television.

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