Mexico
The World Mangrove Atlas: Hope Amid Despair
August 20, 2010 by Danielle Nierenberg
By Daniel Kandy
The World Mangrove Atlas revealed some good news and some bad news. The good news is that the loss of mangroves has slowed to 0.7 percent annually. The bad news is that that rate is still three to four times higher than the loss rate of land-based forest and one fifth of all of the world’s mangroves are thought to have been lost in the past three decades. Of the world’s original mangrove forest area, estimated at 80 million acres, less than 37 million acres of mangroves now remain.
Mangrove forests are home to an abundant variety of tropical fish, birds, reptiles, crustaceans and insects, as well as thousands of species of flora, and human populations who depend on the mangroves for their livelihoods. (Photo: Flickr Commons)
Mangrove forests exist in tropical and sub-tropical regions, with Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, Nigeria, and Mexico having the largest total area of mangroves. 2010 is the United Nation’s International Year of Biodiversity and there have been some positive developments in mangrove conservation. There are 1,200 protected areas in places like the…
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Hipsters and ‘Creativity’ in Mexico City
August 17, 2010 by David Sasaki
I’ve been thinking lately about fashion and class. It’s Mario’s fault. He’s the kind of friend you can sit down with for hours over a few microbrews to discuss the evolution of advanced capitalism through the lens of hipster fashion. I’m still not really sure what that means, but the man does have great taste in beer and threads, and he has me thinking about a thing or two. I live in Condesa, not far from the border with Roma, hipster mecca of Mexico City. It’s where you find people dressed like this.
It’s one of the few places where my little sister, looking like she does these days, fits right in. Like others in her aesthetic cohort, I’m amazed by the time, energy, and nonchalance that goes into perfecting the image. I love the creativity behind the impulse, and yet am frustrated by the vanity.
Did I mention that just about everything costs double in my neighborhood? Rent, food, a cup of coffee. This is a place for the middle-upper class, the young and the restless, the type of kids with enough money to spend entire days in thrift stores to be…
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Mexico: Tenacatita Homeowners Get Evicted
August 13, 2010 by Renee Blodgett
At least 150 Jalisco state police in full riot gear evicted some 800 people living and working in the beach community of Tenacatita and the neighboring village of Rebalsito in the early hours of August 4.
Although officers said they “invited” residents to leave, some reports suggest there were as many as 27 arrests and three people injured with gunshot wounds.
At least 11 people who resisted the eviction are being held at the municipal jail in Ciuhuatlan. Four minors have been released, according to the Attorney General’s Office.
State police said they acted on the order of a judge in Autlan, who ruled that some 50 families were illegally occupying land that belonged to Jose Maria Andres Villalobos, a successful and influential businessman and realtor, and former president of the Guadalajara Chamber of Commerce and current president of Expo Guadalajara.
Villalobos has been trying the get the low-income families evicted from the land for two decades, ever since he purchased 42 hectares of Tenacatita beachfront land from the wife of a former state governor in 1991. (He apparently obtained the federal beach concession rights in 1993.) Many of the businesses on the undeveloped beach are palapa seafood…
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Blue Agave in Mazatlán
August 7, 2010 by Susan McKee
Heading to Mexico, Road Trips Foodies? If Mazatlán is on your itinerary, consider a stop for a tour of Vintana de los Osuna in the nearby mountain village of La Noria. You can explore a 130-year-old blue agave plantation and its distillery. The expansive estate was settled by the Osuna family soon after their arrival from Spain in 1864.
Daily walking tours take guests through the agave fields, where plantation guides explain the growing process and demonstrate how the blue agave is harvested. Visitors then tour both the ancient and modern distillery, sample agave juice, visit the estate’s wine cellar and enjoy final tastings of blue agave at the Los Osuna Bar.
There’s more in visiting the historic Mexican town online.
Mexico’s SB-1070
August 1, 2010 by David Sasaki
The following is my translation of Alberto Escorcia’s post, “Ley General de Población, una SB-1070 a la mexicana“, which was originally published on Pateando Piedras under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share alike license. Photographs are by Don Bartletti of the Los Angeles Times, a photojournalist I’ve long admired.
Mexico’s “General Population Act” is similar to, or at least as racist as, Arizona’s SB-1070
The powerful arrival of SB-1070, even in its now more moderate form, represents a setback regarding the respect for human rights for those seeking work in other countries because of a lack of opportunities in their own. Stopping someone for merely appearing to be a “migrant” (who knows what that means or how it’s determined) is to be condemned because it represents an act of discrimination.
In Mexico we have protested against this law, and we are willing to demonstrate in the streets, but we haven’t even stopped to question our own treatment by local and federal authorities of migrants who pass through our country on their way to the United States.
Have we taken the time to review our own “General Population Act”, which has some of the same parameters…
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Mexico: History, Culture and Economy
July 31, 2010 by Victoria Levy
Mexico, (pronounced i /ˈmɛksɪkoʊ/; Spanish: México [ˈmexiko]), officially known as the United Mexican States (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is a federal constitutional republic in North America.
It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico.
Covering almost 2 million square kilometres (over 760,000 sq mi), Mexico is the fifth-largest country in the Americas by total area and the 14th largest independent nation in the world.
With an estimated population of 111 million, it is the 11th most populous country and the most populous Hispanophone country on Earth.
Mexico is a federation comprising thirty-one states and a Federal District, the capital city.
In Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica many cultures matured into advanced civilizations such as the Olmec, the Toltec, the Teotihuacan, the Zapotec, the Maya and the Aztec before the first contact with Europeans. In 1521, Spain conquered and colonized the territory, which was administered as the viceroyalty of New Spain which would eventually become Mexico as the colony gained independence in 1821.
The post-independence period was characterized by economic instability, territorial secession and civil war, including foreign intervention, two empires and two long domestic dictatorships. The latter led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the country’s…
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Mexico: A Political Kidnapping Versus Chuck Norris
July 27, 2010 by David Sasaki
Mexican Twitter users poked fun at their politicians back in April when congressman Nazario Norberto Sánchez of the Revolutionary Democratic Party sponsored a bill to more closely monitor and regulate the use of Facebook and Twitter with the aim of disrupting the use of online social networks by drug cartels and organized crime. “The bill would make sharing information that helps others break the law or avoid it a criminal act,” writes Alexis Okeowo in Time.
Mexican Twitter users reacted with laughter and scorn when they heard about the bill, with many saying that the proposed legislation was just an excuse for the government to act as Big Brother. Instead of cracking down on Twitter and Facebook use, some analysts say that law-enforcement and intelligence agencies should adapt to the new technology by creating fake identities on the sites to track criminals down instead of seeking to regulate the sites.
Twitter is back in the controversial spotlight today after journalist José Cárdenas used his Twitter account (30,000 followers) to release the contents of a letter allegedly written by kidnapped former presidential candidate Diego Fernandez de Cevallos along with…
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Travel Like a Human: Hotels Be Gone
July 18, 2010 by Renee Blodgett
The New York Times has an interesting piece about traveling the ‘human way’ – in other words, find houses, apartments and various other dwelling variations rather than stay in a hotel.
I learn about a short-term rental service called AirBnB.com, their tagline btw is: travel like a human. Called the “Ebay for space” by Time Magazine, Airbnb is an online marketplace allowing anyone from private residents to commercial properties to rent out their extra space. The reputation-based site allows for user reviews, verification, and secure online transactions. Listings include vacation rentals, private rooms, entire apartments, bed and breakfasts, boutique hotels, castles, treehouses, and many other traditional and non-traditional accommodations.
I have to admit, a treehouse definitely sounds more compelling than a cold, lifeless motel room providing there’s mosquito nets if in more tropical areas. Then again, I doubt I’d get wifi in a treehouse or a hot shower with great water pressure, but you most certainly would have ambience and surrounded by nature on all sounds.
You can find a studio apartment for as low as 65 Euros a night in Paris only ten minutes away from the Louvre. Other sites such as
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Blogsherpa Blog Carnival: Kids Around the World
July 15, 2010 by Glennia Campbell
I’m hosting the Lonely Planet Blogsherpa Blog Carnival this time around, and our theme this week is Kids Around the World. I asked my fellow Blogsherpas to write about taking their kids on trips or meeting kids while traveling. I got some amazing stories from top bloggers and photographers from around the world. Grab a cup of your favorite beverage, and take a little trip around the world with me now, and meet some great kids (and bloggers) along the way…
Planning a trip to Spain with your kids? Jennifer at the delightful Orange Polka Dot offers some sage advice on traveling with kids or teens. In Spain, don’t be surprised if you spot kids drinking something that looks like wine, either a few sips from mom or dad’s glass, or a finger of wine in a glass of La Casera (soda water). Jennifer speculates that maybe it is a bottle that is just their size that delights them. Be forewarned that in Europe, wine does not carry the same taboo for youngsters that it does in the United
South Africa vs Mexico in LEGO
June 17, 2010 by Nic Haralambous
Great little video for a bit of fun:
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