Destination: Mexico
Happy Cinco de Mayo
by Jim Benning | 05.05.08 | 1:07 PM ET
It’s White-People’s-Excuse-to-Let-Loose Day! (Or, if you’re NPR, it’s your excuse to go completely loco and play some Nortec Collective.)
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Yahoo! BuzzIn Los Angeles, ‘Carne Asada is Not a Crime’
by Jim Benning | 05.05.08 | 11:13 AM ET
Have more profound words ever been uttered? That’s one of the rallying cries of Save Our Taco Trucks, a movement opposing a new law that restricts taco trucks in Los Angeles County. The law requires the trucks to change locations every hour, with violators “facing fines, misdemeanor charges and, possibly, jail time,” the New York Times reports.
World Hum Travel Movie Club: ‘Y Tu Mamá También,’ Part Two
by Eli Ellison, Eva Holland | 04.25.08 | 10:09 AM ET
World Hum Travel Movie Club: ‘Y Tu Mamá También,’ Part One
by Eli Ellison, Eva Holland | 04.24.08 | 5:27 PM ET
Remembering Octavio Paz
by Jim Benning | 04.16.08 | 11:35 AM ET
This week is the 10th anniversary of the death of the great Mexican writer and poet Octavio Paz. The Los Angeles Times’ La Plaza blog notes that the Nobel Prize winner is being remembered in Mexico City with conferences and radio programs. For travelers, Paz’s Labyrinth of Solitude is a challenging but essential book for understanding Mexican culture. Paz also wrote a travel memoir of sorts, In Light of India, based on his time as a diplomat in the country.
U.S. State Department: Be Alert to Safety Concerns in Mexican Border Zone
by Jim Benning | 04.15.08 | 9:59 AM ET
Not terribly surprising, but it’s worth noting that the U.S. State Department reissued a travel alert for Mexico on Monday, citing “[v]iolent criminal activity fueled by a war between criminal organizations struggling for control of the lucrative narcotics trade.”
Absolut on How to Lose Customers with Historical Maps
by Jim Benning | 04.07.08 | 12:46 PM ET
What were they thinking? The Absolut vodka company was running ads in Mexico featuring an 1830s map showing the southwestern U.S. as part of Mexico and featuring the line, “In an Absolut World.” It’s part of a campaign depicting “ideal scenarios,” according to the AP. It’s a clever ad, and I’m sure it played well in Mexico. But, shockingly, it came to the attention of some humorless U.S. citizens. Cue the calls for boycotts, the angry letters and Absolut’s apology.
‘¡Ask a Mexican!’ Columnist Says ‘Adios’*
by Michael Yessis | 03.28.08 | 1:23 PM ET
Gustavo Arellano has retired his informative and, in some quarters, controversial ‘¡Ask a Mexican!’ column in the OC Weekly. “It’s no longer necessary to explain Mexicans to Americans because Mexicans are Americans,” he writes in his farewell note.
Update: April 2, 10:27 ET: Not so fast. Looks like Arellano was just playing an April Fool’s Day joke—five days early. I bit, and so did everyone else, Arellano says, except his best friend and one blogger.
Violence Leads Some Spring Breakers to Bypass Mexico
by Jim Benning | 03.11.08 | 10:50 AM ET
Many college students on spring break once took the so-called “two-nation vacation,” consisting of a visit to South Padre Island, Texas and a jaunt across the Mexican border to Matamoros. But the AP reports today that news of drug-related violence in Mexico has many students this year taking a one-nation vacation instead and staying on U.S. soil.
Mexico’s Grand Plans for Loreto
by Jim Benning | 03.07.08 | 11:30 AM ET
The sleepy resort town on Baja California’s Sea of Cortez is in for some big changes. The New York Times details plans for thousands of new homes “in the best tradition of the new urbanism.”
Related on World Hum:
* A Bad Situation Gets Worse in Tijuana
Hanging With ‘The Serenader’
by Jim Benning | 03.07.08 | 10:34 AM ET
The Dancing Old Men of Patzcuaro
by Jim Benning | 02.26.08 | 1:07 PM ET
A Bad Situation Gets Worse in Tijuana
by Jim Benning | 02.20.08 | 1:13 PM ET
Tijuana should be a safe and thriving border city packed with happy day-tripping tourists savoring a taste of Mexican culture. But a recent front page story in the Los Angeles Times paints a grim picture of violence and plunging tourism in the city: Murders and kidnappings are way up—more than 50 people have been killed this year alone—and according to a local merchants association, only 150 tourists trickle in daily now.
Dispatch from Oaxaca: ‘A Year Later’
by Jim Benning | 01.31.08 | 3:39 PM ET
Ceci Connolly visited the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca recently to see how it was doing after the deadly riots of 2006. “It didn’t take long to realize that the answer is more complicated than I’d thought,” she writes in the San Francisco Chronicle. “Oaxaca is no longer the filthy, smoldering wreck of 2006. Nor, however, is it the bustling cultural center of years past. It appears safe and clean. But unresolved political tensions have prompted the U.S. State Department to keep it on a watch list.”
New U.S. Border Entry Rules Take Effect Today*
by Jim Benning | 01.31.08 | 9:18 AM ET
If you’re a Canadian or U.S. citizen crossing into the U.S., you’ll now need to show a government-issued photo ID—a driver’s license will do—and proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate. Those under 18 need only a birth certificate. Of course, a passport is all you really need, but the new rules are a precursor to a mandatory passport rule, which has been postponed until at least 2009. Cross-border commuters fear long waits and headaches as the new rules take effect today. Hopefully the scene at checkpoints won’t look anything like this. The U.S. State Department has the official word on requirements.
Update, 11:40 a.m. PT: Word from the Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossing this morning is that the wait is perhaps slightly longer than usual.