Cinco de Mayo, fiesta grande en los Estados Unidos

Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May, is the biggest Mexican holiday in the entire United States. Oh sure, the holiday commemorates the 1862 Battle of Puebla, so kids in that Mexican city get the day off to watch a parade, and gringo-infested beach resorts may get a little loco, but the rest of Mexico carries on as usual.

North of the border, it’s a different story. The community-based Mexican-American celebrations of the Sixties were co-opted by marketers for big brewers, tequila importers, and mega-food purveyors. In other words, it’s St. Patrick’s Day with mariachis. Is this a great country, or what?

More:

“Cinco de Mayo: A History Obscured by Beers and Burritos,” Jason Ruiz, Long Beach Post

“U.S. Marketers Turn Cinco de Mayo Into Pan-Ethnic National Celebration, Joel Millman, Wall Street Journal

“How Corona Made Cinco de Mayo an American Holiday,” Adam Teeter, VinePair 

“Does Mexico Celebrate Cinco De Mayo? Find Out How Holiday Became Mainstream,” Susmita Baral, Latin Times

“Mexicans don’t understand why you are celebrating Cinco de Mayo,” Allison Jackson, GlobalPost

“Why is Cinco de Mayo More Popular in America Than in Mexico?” Brian Greene, U.S. News & World Report

“Gringo de Mayo,” Gustavo Arellano, OC Weekly

“Cinco de Mayo: A New American Holiday,” Cesar M. Melgoza,Huffington Post

“Cinco De Mayo: Whose Holiday Is It, Anyway?” NPR

“How Not to Be Awful This Cinco de Mayo,” Kelly Williams Brown,Daily Beast

 

Note: ¿Chilaquiles? Mira aquí.

_________________________

Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-yYQ

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

 

Mexican Avocado Scare Rocks the Guac Out of USA

After a week-long pause, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) allowed imports of Mexican avocados to resume on Saturday, replenishing US guacamole reserves exhausted by Super Bowl parties. Imports ceased after a Mexico-based avocado inspector from the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) was threatened by crime cartels anxious to pass off Jalisco ‘cados as Michoacán-grown, the only ones currently allowed into the States.

With $3 billion in annual avocado exports, Mexican crime cartels have targeted another US drug of choice, guacamole. Mexico’s avocado growers face cartel extortion and hijackings. The boom crop is also responsible for drought, deforestation, and violence.

While the US has agreed to begin importing avocados from additional Mexican states as their crops are declared pest-free, those harvests will never be crime free.

More:

“United States lifts Mexican avocado ban — averting what could have been a costly crisis,” By María Luisa Paúl, Washington Post

“How the Avocado Became Key to Mexican Drug Cartel Turf War,” Khaleda Rahman, Newsweek

_____________________
Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-yOa

Image (“There Goes the Neighborhood”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Why the U.S. has so many undocumented immigrants

Until 1996, half of the Mexican immigrants who came to the US without papers would return to Mexico within a year. That was the year the so-called Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) turned that unauthorized north-bound immigration into a one-way street. A vox video.

_________________
Short link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-xMn

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Happy Birthday Frida Kahlo

Mexican painter and activist Frida Kahlo de Rivera  was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacán, Mexico. The National Museum of Women in the Arts is celebrating with a virtual Happy Hour today, 5:30 PM to 6:30 PM Eastern. Reserve your spot and mix up a cocktail. ¡Salud!

Related:

Frida Kahlo at MoMA

Frida Kahlo: The Complete Works, Frida-Kahlo-Foundation.org

“Frida Kahlo Was a Painter, a Brand Builder, a Survivor. And So Much More.” Rebecca Kleinman, New York Times

___________________

Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-v4D

Image (“Frida in Shades, after Frida Kahlo”) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

It Takes a Village of Undocumented Workers to Run Trump Golf Resorts

Candidate Donald Trump railed against U.S. employers who hire undocumented workers, but his golf resorts were built by them, including the “Summer White House” at Bedminster, NJ. Villagers from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico and Guatemala were knowingly hired by Trump Golf managers as construction laborers, heavy equipment operators, landscapers, kitchen staff, and housekeepers for about two decades. After the Washington Post broke a story about undocumented workers at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester NY, where Eric Trump lives, these long-time Trump employees were all swiftly fired, and other Trump resorts shortly followed suit.

The Trump Organization did not use the federal E-Verify system except in cases like the DC Trump Hotel, a GSA construction project that required it. Once in operation, the hotel apparently stopped using it.

More:

“‘My whole town practically lived there’: From Costa Rica to New Jersey, a pipeline of illegal workers for Trump goes back years,” Joshua Partlow, Nick Miroff and David A. Fahrenthold, Washington Post

“Trump’s own undocumented help highlights plight of many immigrants,” Paul Reyes, The Hill

“7 questions about Trump’s use of illegal workers at his golf courses,” David A. Fahrenthold and Joshua Partlow, Washington Post

Mexico’s Murderers: ¡Gracias, NRA!

There’s only one gun store in all of Mexico, and it’s on an army base. But the southern border region of the US bristles with gun shops.

“… like so many aspects of life in Mexico, the influence of its powerful neighbor to the north is keenly felt: Each day the army gun store sells on average just 38 firearms to civilians, while an estimated 580 weapons are smuggled into Mexico from the United States.

That paradox is increasingly relevant given Mexico’s unprecedented levels of gun violence, which have claimed more than 100,000 lives over the last decade. Last year was Mexico’s deadliest since the government began releasing homicide statistics in 1997. This year, it is on track to surpass that record.”

— “There is only one gun store in all of Mexico. So why is gun violence soaring?” Kate Linthicum, Los Angeles Times

What can be done? For a start, the U.S. can finally ratify the The Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials (CIFTA). The National Rifle Association has thrown money around and stalled this for a dozen years, at the cost of thousands of lives.

You think life is cheap in Mexico? So are congressmen here in the USA — you can buy them for the cost of a few assault rifles.

Jared Kushner Is In Mexico for Spring Break

Jared Kushner, Senior White House Advisor, is in Mexico today to meet with President Enrique Peña Nieto and Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray about security, immigration and trade. Mr. Kushner knows all about security, having just had his Top Secret security clearance revoked, and knows about immigration from selling U.S. EB-5 visas to wealthy foreign investors. Jared Kushner learned about foreign trade by marrying Chinese shmata importer Ivanka Trump.

Presidents Trump and Peña Nieto were scheduled to meet in Washington, but Mr. Peña Nieto canceled his DC trip after a phone call with Mr. Trump, who continues to demand Mexican money for a border wall and menace the NAFTA agreement. The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, career diplomat Roberta S. Jacobson, who has announced her May 1 resignation, was not invited to Kushner’s Mexican meetings.

More:

“Kushner to visit Mexico after Trump tirades, testy phone call,” Ana Isabel Martinez, Reuters

“Jared Kushner to Meet Mexico President Despite Losing Top-Secret Security Clearance,” Jessica Kwong, Newsweek

Updates:

“Kushner Meets With Mexican President, Underscoring Shift in U.S. Diplomacy,” Azam Ahmed and Nicholas Casey, New York Times

“Kushner meets with top officials in Mexico amid strained relations,” By Joshua Partlow, Washington Post

Related:

“Uneasy US-Mexico relationship will survive ambassador’s resignation — but just barely,” Pamela K. Starr, The Conversation

____________

Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-rkm

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

How Much Is That In Pesos?

President Donald Trump, the great deal maker, wants U.S. taxpayers to pony up $18 billion to pay for the first leg of his border wall, saying “in some form, Mexico will pay for the wall.”

If you’re counting on this, US $18 billion is 345,295,800,000.00 Mexican Pesos. No aguantes la respiración (don’t hold your breath).

Related:

“Nation with Crumbling Bridges and Roads Excited to Build Giant Wall,” Andy Borowitz, The New Yorker

“Four things Trump could spend $18 billion on instead of a border wall,” Oliver Staley, Quartz

______________

Short Link: https://wp.me/p6sb6-qVh

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine

Cinco de Mayo, fiesta grande en los Estados Unidos

Cinco de Mayo, the 5th of May, is the biggest Mexican holiday in the entire United States. Oh sure, the holiday commemorates the 1862 Battle of Puebla, so kids in that Mexican city get the day off to watch a parade, and gringo-infested beach resorts get a little loco, but the rest of Mexico carries on as usual.

North of the border, it’s a different story. The community-based Mexican-American celebrations of the Sixties were co-opted by marketers for big multinational brewers, tequila importers, and mega-food purveyors. In other words, it’s St. Patrick’s Day with mariachis. Is this a great country, or what?

More:

“Cinco de Mayo: A History Obscured by Beers and Burritos,” Jason Ruiz, Long Beach Post

“U.S. Marketers Turn Cinco de Mayo Into Pan-Ethnic National Celebration, Joel Millman, Wall Street Journal

“How Corona Made Cinco de Mayo an American Holiday,” Adam Teeter, VinePair 

“Does Mexico Celebrate Cinco De Mayo? Find Out How Holiday Became Mainstream,” Susmita Baral, Latin Times

Political Piñatero

The only substantive thing to come out of the Republican presidential race so far is the Donald Trump piñata, especially if you put candy in it. Jonathan Blitzer has a profile of artist Dalton Ávalos Ramírez at The New Yorker:

“The Man Behind the Trump Piñata,” Jonathan Blitzer, The New Yorker
__________________

Short Link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-nwa

Top image: Donald Trump piñata by Dalton Ávalos Ramírez.

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine